Multi-player bingo game with progressive jackpots

ABSTRACT

Methods and gaming units for conducting a wagering game and an associated progressive jackpot in a gaming network having a plurality of operatively coupled gaming units are described. A progressive jackpot award amount may be determined in part based on the amount of the player&#39;s wager for the occurrence of the wagering game in relation to a maximum wager amount that may be made on one of the gaming units in the gaming network. The progressive jackpot pool may include a main pool and a reserve pool. Portions of players&#39; wagers being added to the progressive jackpot pool may be apportioned between the main pool and the reserve pool based on calculation performed at the gaming network, with the apportionment being at least partially determined by the amount in the main pool.

PRIORITY CLAIM

This application is a continuation of, claims priority to and thebenefit of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/073,359, filed on Nov. 6,2013 which is a continuation of, claims priority to and the benefit ofU.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/092,005, filed on Apr. 21, 2011, nowU.S. Pat. No. 8,579,709, which is a continuation of, claims priority toand the benefit of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/940,247, filed onSep. 14, 2004, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,951,004, which is acontinuation-in-part of, claims priority to and the benefit of U.S.patent application Ser. No. 10/755,982, filed on Jan. 13, 2004, now U.S.Pat. No. 7,959,509, which claims priority to and the benefit of U.S.Patent Application No. 60/503,161, filed on Sep. 15, 2003, and U.S.patent application Ser. No. 10/940,247 is a continuation-in-part of,claims priority to and the benefit of U.S. patent application Ser. No.10/756,429, filed on Jan. 13, 2004, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,614,948, whichclaims priority to and the benefit of U.S. Patent Application No.60/503,161, filed on Sep. 15, 2003, and U.S. patent application Ser. No.10/940,247 claims priority to and the benefit of U.S. Patent ApplicationNo. 60/503,161, filed on Sep. 15, 2003, the entire contents of each areincorporated by reference herein.

BACKGROUND

The present disclosure relates to gaming networks and, moreparticularly, to a gaming network providing a multi-player Bingo gamewith an optional wager for a progressive jackpot.

Indian gaming in the United States is divided into Class I, Class II andClass III games. Class I gaming includes social games played for minimalprizes, or traditional ceremonial games. Class II gaming includes Bingoand Bingo-like games. Bingo is defined as games played for prizes,including monetary prizes, with cards bearing numbers or otherdesignations in which the holder of the cards covers such numbers ordesignations when objects, similarly numbered or designated, are drawnor electronically determined, and in which the game is won by the firstperson covering a previously designated arrangement of numbers ordesignations on such cards. Class II gaming may also include pull tabgames if played in the same location as Bingo games, lotto, punchboards, tip jars, instant Bingo, and other games similar to Bingo. ClassIII gaming includes any game that is not a Class I or Class II game,such as games of chance (slots, video poker, video blackjack, videoKeno, and the like) typically offered in non-Indian, state-regulatedcasinos.

Two basic forms of Bingo exist. In traditional Bingo, the playerspurchase cards after which a draw takes place. The first player toachieve a designated pattern wins. In one type of Bingo game known asBonanza Bingo, the draw for the game takes place before the players knowthe arrangements on their Bingo cards. After the draw occurs, theplayers may either purchase cards or expose previously purchased cardsand compare the arrangements on the cards to the drawn numbers todetermine whether predetermined patterns are matched. Play continues inBonanza Bingo until at least one of the players matches a designatedgame-winning pattern. Bonanza Bingo may also encompass Bingo variationswherein a partial draw is conducted for some numbers (generally fewerthan the number of balls expected to be necessary to win the game) priorto selling and/or revealing the Bingo cards. After the Bingo cards aresold and/or revealed, additional numbers are drawn until there is awinner.

As indicated above, a Bingo game is played until at least one playercovers a predetermined game-winning pattern on the player's Bingo card.The game may also include interim winners of prizes based on matchingpredetermined interim patterns on the Bingo card using the same balldraw. The interim pattern wins do not terminate the Bingo game. Forinterim pattern awards, players covering certain interim patterns mayreceive an additional award as the game continues. Some exceptionalBingo versions may allow Bingo draws beyond those needed to achieve theBingo game win so as to payout interim pattern wins at a desired rate.The game-winning awards may be partially or fully pari-mutuel in nature.That is, the Bingo win award is based upon the total amount wagered on agiven occurrence of the Bingo game. However, interim pattern awardstypically are not pari-mutuel.

For a given game-winning pattern, the expected number of balls drawn forat least one Bingo card to match the game-winning pattern depends on thenumber of Bingo cards being played in the Bingo game. Bingo is typicallyplayed with a variable number of Bingo cards resulting from varyingnumbers of players and players playing varying numbers of Bingo cards.Consequently, if the interim patterns are evaluated based on the ballsdrawn until at least one Bingo card matches the game-winning pattern,the odds of awarding interim awards also varies with the number of Bingocards being played in the Bingo game. If the interim awards aredetermined based on the ball draw to Bingo, the Bingo game may berestricted to a fixed number of Bingo cards in order to achieve adesired payout rate for the interim pattern awards. However, it may bedifficult to use a fixed number of Bingo cards in every occurrence ofthe Bingo game in a real-time environment wherein the players'expectation may be to play the Bingo game on demand.

For example, to achieve a desired interim award payout rate, it may bedesirable to play each occurrence of the Bingo game with a fixed numberof Bingo cards, such as fifteen. If there are at least two players butless than fifteen Bingo cards are enrolled in the Bingo game within ashort period of time, in order to serve the players, the casino may wantto start the game for those players available to play. With the fewernumber of Bingo cards, the average number of balls drawn for at leastone of the Bingo cards to match the game-winning pattern may be expectedto be greater than for fifteen Bingo cards. Correspondingly, the numberof balls used by the players to match the interim patterns increases,thereby increasing the odds of players matching the interim patterns andincreasing the interim award payout rate. Therefore, a need exists for amethod for minimizing the impact of the players and/or Bingo cards uponthe award structure for a multi-player Bingo game, including the impacton the odds of awarding interim pattern awards.

In general, players may find games such as slot machines, whetherelectro-mechanical or video, to be more appealing to Bingo games.Typically, slot machine outcomes are based upon the resultant patternsof symbols displayed on the reels. However, as mentioned above, slotmachines and other similar type games of chance fall into the categoryof Class III games, which may be subject to stricter approval andregulation.

As such, there is a recognized need for providing a system wherein aBingo outcome may be presented to the players with the displaysimulating the appearance of traditional Class III games, such as withelectro-mechanical or video slot reels, but with the outcome of theBingo game determining the outcome to be displayed instead of the gameengine typically used for the selected Class III game. For example, aBingo outcome may be used to determine the positioning of the reels of adisplay device having the look and feel of a slot machine. Thus, thepositioning of the slot reels is based upon the Bingo pattern(s) matchedby the player during the Bingo game. Further, the award amounts depictedby the display device may correspond to the award amounts, plus anyscatter and bonus awards, represented by the Bingo patterns. The displaydevice, therefore, serves as an alternate display of the results of theBingo game. The Bingo card, which may also be displayed, is the ultimateoutcome-determining entity, with that outcome determining the outcomethat is displayed on the display device.

For slot machines and other games of chance having a single payline(i.e. a single sequence or grouping of game symbols that is evaluated todetermine whether a winning combination occurs), mapping between thewinning outcomes of the game of chance and patterns in a Bingo game maynot be difficult to achieve. Such games of chance typically encompass acouple dozen possible winning combinations and associated payoutamounts. Selecting Bingo patterns with odds of occurrence similar tothose of each desired winning outcome of the game of chance may bereadily achieved by one skilled in the art.

The current trend in slot machines, for example, is to providemulti-line spinning reel games (i.e., multiple sequences or groupings ofgame symbols that are evaluated to determine whether one or more winningcombinations occur). The award resulting from the final positioning ofthe reels may be the sum of the awards for all the selected paylines,plus any scatter or bonus awards. Thus, the number of possible awardamounts for a given play of the game is increased dramatically and caneasily reach several hundred. In order to provide a display device for aBingo game and offer the look and feel of a multi-line slot machine, aneed exists for a method to map the Bingo patterns to each of a desiredlarge number of award amounts. Attempting to define patterns for all ormost such award amounts may be analytically challenging and potentiallyconfusing to the Bingo player.

One example of a method for awarding a portion of a progressive jackpotto a player based on the amount wagered by the player is disclosed inU.S. Patent Publication No. 2003/0181231 A1 to Vancura et al. Vancura etal. discloses a method for paying a progressive jackpot in a wide areaprogressive system having a progressive controller linked to groups ofgaming terminals. Each gaming terminal using software determines, basedupon at least the broadcast current progressive jackpot amount and thereceived wager, at least one fractional portion of the broadcast currentprogressive jackpot amount that may be won by the player when aprogressive event occurs in play of the casino game of chance at thegaming terminal. The fractional progressive jackpot amount is deliveredfrom the gaming terminal back to the progressive controller where it isdeducted before the next current progressive jackpot amount isbroadcast.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In one aspect, the invention is directed to a method for conducting atleast one wagering game and an associated progressive jackpot over agaming network having a plurality of operatively coupled gaming units atwhich a player may be awarded a progressive jackpot award from theprogressive jackpot, wherein at least two of the gaming units may havedifferent maximum wager amounts that a player may wager on an occurrenceof the at least one wagering game. The method may include receiving adeposit of an amount of a medium of currency by a player at a gamingunit, receiving input for a player's wager on an occurrence of awagering game at an input device of the gaming unit, and subtracting theamount of the player's wager on the occurrence of the wagering game fromthe player's available credit at the gaming unit in response toreceiving the input for the player's wager, wherein the player'savailable credit corresponds to the amount of the medium of currencydeposited at the gaming unit. The method may further include determiningan outcome for the player for the occurrence of the wagering game, andawarding a progressive jackpot award to the player in response todetermining that the player's outcome for the occurrence of the wageringgame is a predetermined progressive jackpot winning outcome. Theprogressive jackpot award may be equal to at least a portion of aprogressive jackpot pool multiplied by the ratio of the player's wageron the occurrence of the wagering game to a gaming network maximum wageramount that may be wagered on an occurrence of one of the at least onewagering game at a gaming unit of the gaming network.

In another aspect, the invention is directed to a method for conductingat least one wagering game and an associated progressive jackpot over agaming network having a plurality of operatively coupled gaming units atwhich a player may be awarded a progressive jackpot award from theprogressive jackpot, wherein at least two of the gaming units may havedifferent maximum wager amounts that a player may wager on an occurrenceof the at least one wagering game. The method may include receiving adeposit of an amount of a medium of currency by a player at a gamingunit, adding the deposited amount of currency to the player's availablecredit at the gaming unit, and displaying the player's available creditat the gaming unit. The player's available credit may be displayed as anumber of credits, each credit having a corresponding monetary creditdenomination such that the displayed number of credits multiplied by thecredit denomination may be equal to the monetary value of the player'savailable credit.

The method may further include receiving input for a player's wager onan occurrence of a wagering game at an input device of the gaming unit,wherein the input for the player's wager on an occurrence of thewagering game may be a number of wagered credits, and wherein the amountof the player's wager may be equal to the number of wagered creditsmultiplied by the credit denomination. Still further, the method mayinclude subtracting the amount of the player's wager on the occurrenceof the wagering game from the player's available credit at the gamingunit in response to receiving the input for the player's wager,determining an outcome for the player for the occurrence of the wageringgame, and awarding a progressive jackpot award to the player in responseto determining that the player's outcome for the occurrence of thewagering game is a predetermined progressive jackpot winning outcome.The progressive jackpot award may be equal to at least a portion of aprogressive jackpot pool multiplied by the ratio of the player's wageron the occurrence of the wagering game to the product of a gamingnetwork maximum credit denomination that may be wagered on an occurrenceof one of the at least one wagering game at a gaming unit of the gamingnetwork and a gaming network maximum number of credits that may bewagered on an occurrence of one of the at least one wagering game at agaming unit of the gaming network.

In further aspect, the invention is directed to a method for conductinga wagering game and an associated progressive jackpot over a gamingnetwork. The method may include providing a progressive jackpot poolhaving a main pool and a reserve pool, receiving a deposit of an amountof a medium of currency by a player at a gaming unit of the gamingnetwork, receiving input for a player's wager on an occurrence of thewagering game at an input device of the gaming unit, and calculating apredetermined portion of the player's wager to be added to theprogressive jackpot pool. The method may also include automaticallycalculating a main pool funding amount, wherein the main pool fundingamount may be equal to a percentage of the predetermined portion of theplayer's wager, wherein the percentage of the predetermined portion maybe determined based on the current main pool amount, and wherein thepercentage may be determined automatically by the gaming network. Stillfurther, the method may include adding the main pool funding amount tothe main pool amount, and adding the predetermined portion of theplayer's wager minus the main pool funding amount to the reserve poolamount.

In yet another aspect, the invention is directed to a progressivejackpot network computer for providing a progressive jackpot in a gamingnetwork having a plurality of operatively coupled gaming unitsconfigured to provide at least one wagering game. The progressivejackpot network computer may include a network computer memory device,and a network computer controller operatively coupled to the networkcomputer memory device and the gaming units. The network computercontroller may be programmed to cause the network computer memory deviceto store a progressive jackpot pool having a main pool and a reservepool, to receive player wager information transmitted by the gamingunits on the gaming network, and to determine a predetermined portion ofthe player's wager to be added to the progressive jackpot pool based onthe received player wager information. The network computer controllermay also be programmed to calculate a main pool funding amount, whereinthe main pool funding amount may be equal to a percentage of thepredetermined portion of the player's wager, and wherein the percentageof the predetermined portion may be determined by the network computercontroller based on the current main pool amount stored at the networkcomputer memory device. The network computer controller may further beprogrammed to add the main pool funding amount to the main pool amount,to add the predetermined portion of the player's wager minus the mainpool funding amount to the reserve pool amount, and to cause the networkcomputer memory device to store the updated main pool amount and reservepool amount.

In a still further aspect, the invention is directed to a method forreseeding a progressive jackpot having a main pool and a reserve poolwhen a player of a wagering game has a progressive jackpot winningoutcome for an occurrence of the wagering game. The method may includeawarding the player a progressive jackpot award, wherein the progressivejackpot award amount may be equal to a first main pool amount multipliedby a proration ratio, and wherein the proration ratio may be a numberless than or equal to one. The method may further include calculating asecond main pool amount equal to the first main pool amount minus theprogressive jackpot award amount, calculating a transfer amount equal toa first reserve pool amount multiplied by the proration ratio,calculating a third main pool amount equal the second main pool amountplus the transfer amount, and calculating a second reserve pool amountequal to the first reserve pool amount minus the transfer amount.

Further, in another aspect, the invention is directed to a method forreseeding a progressive jackpot having a main pool and a reserve poolwhen a player of a wagering game has a progressive jackpot winningoutcome for an occurrence of the wagering game. The method may includeawarding the player a progressive jackpot award, wherein the progressivejackpot award amount may be equal to a main pool amount multiplied by aproration ratio, and wherein the proration ratio may be a number lessthan or equal to one. The method may further include subtracting theprogressive jackpot award amount from the main pool amount, calculatinga transfer amount equal to a reserve pool amount multiplied by theproration ratio, adding the transfer amount to the main pool amount, andadding the transfer amount to the reserve pool amount.

In a still further aspect, the invention is directed to a progressivejackpot network computer for providing a progressive jackpot in a gamingnetwork having a plurality of operatively coupled gaming unitsconfigured to provide at least one wagering game. The network computermay include a network computer memory device and a network computercontroller operatively coupled to the network computer memory device andthe gaming units. The network computer controller may be programmed tocause the network computer memory device to store a progressive jackpotpool having a main pool and a reserve pool, to receive playerprogressive jackpot win information transmitted by the gaming units onthe gaming network, and to determine a progressive jackpot award. Theprogressive jackpot award amount may be equal to the main pool amountmultiplied by a proration ratio, the proration ratio may be a numberless than or equal to one, and the proration ratio may be determinedbased on the transmitted player progressive jackpot win information. Thenetwork computer controller may further be programmed to subtract theprogressive jackpot award amount from the main pool amount, to calculatea transfer amount equal to the reserve pool amount multiplied by theproration ratio, to add the transfer amount to the main pool amount, toadd the transfer amount to the reserve pool amount, and to cause thenetwork computer memory device to store the updated main pool amount andreserve pool amount.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an embodiment of a gaming system inaccordance with the invention;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of an embodiment of one of the gaming unitsshown schematically in FIG. 1;

FIG. 2A illustrates an embodiment of a control panel for a gaming unit;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of the electronic components of the gamingunit of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of the electronic components of a networkcomputer of FIG. 1;

FIGS. 5A and B are a flowchart of a embodiment of a multi-player Bingogame routine that may be performed by the gaming network;

FIG. 6-15 are illustrations of visual displays that may be displayedduring the performance of the multi-player Bingo game routine of FIGS.5A and 5B;

FIGS. 16A and 16B are a flowchart of another embodiment of amulti-player Bingo game routine that may be performed by the gamingnetwork;

FIGS. 17A and 17B are a flowchart of a further embodiment of amulti-player Bingo game routine that may be performed by the gamingnetwork;

FIGS. 18A and 18B are a flowchart of a still further embodiment of amulti-player Bingo game routine that may be performed by the gamingnetwork:

FIGS. 19-23 are illustrations of visual displays that may be displayedduring a determination of a Bingo win award amount;

FIGS. 24-27 are illustrations of visual displays that may be displayedduring an alternative determination of a Bingo win award amount;

FIG. 28 is an illustration of a set of interim patterns for amulti-player Bingo game awarding interim pattern awards;

FIGS. 29-31 are illustrations of visual displays that may be displayedafter awarding interim pattern win awards in a multi-player Bingo game;

FIG. 32 is a flowchart of a method for performing multi-level patternmapping;

FIG. 33 is a table of pay groups for a plurality of award amounts:

FIG. 34 is an illustration of a set of primary Bingo patterns for amulti-player Bingo game with multi-level pattern mapping of awardamounts;

FIG. 35 is an illustration of visual displays that may be displayedduring the determination of an interim pattern award amount;

FIG. 36 is an illustration of sets of secondary patterns for amulti-player Bingo game with multi-level pattern mapping of awardamounts;

FIG. 37 is an illustration of an embodiment of a video slots displaythat may be displayed as an alternate outcome display;

FIGS. 38 and 39 illustrate an embodiment of the multi-line paytablecorresponding to the video slots display of FIG. 37, along withillustrations of the individual paylines;

FIG. 40 is a table of pay groups for a plurality of award amounts;

FIG. 41 is an illustration of a set of primary Bingo patterns for amulti-player Bingo game with multi-level pattern mapping of awardamounts from a slots paytable;

FIG. 42 is an illustration of sets of secondary patterns for amulti-player Bingo game with multi-level pattern mapping of awardamounts;

FIG. 43 is an illustration of possible slot machine reel stop positionscorresponding to various award amounts;

FIG. 44 is an illustration of sets of game-winning patterns forachieving uniform probability distributions for varying numbers of Bingocards; and

FIGS. 45 and 46 are charts of the probability distributions of ballsdrawn to match the game-winning patterns of FIG. 44.

FIG. 47 is a flowchart of an embodiment of an enrollment routine for amulti-player Bingo game having optional progressive jackpot wagering.

FIG. 48 is a flowchart of an alternative embodiment of an enrollmentroutine for a multi-player Bingo game having optional progressivejackpot wagering.

FIG. 49 is a flowchart of an embodiment of a multi-player Bingo gameroutine having slept awards added to a progressive jackpot.

FIG. 50 is a flowchart of an alternative embodiment of a multi-playerBingo game routine having slept awards added to a progressive jackpot.

FIG. 51 is a flowchart of an embodiment of a progressive jackpot fundingroutine for a progressive jackpot having a main pool and a reserve pool.

FIG. 52 is chart graphing a strategy for funding a main pool and areserve pool of a progressive jackpot that may be implemented in aprogressive jackpot network computer.

FIG. 53 is chart graphing an alternative strategy for funding a mainpool and a reserve pool of a progressive jackpot that may be implementedin a progressive jackpot network computer.

FIG. 54 is chart graphing a further alternative strategy for funding amain pool and a reserve pool of a progressive jackpot that may beimplemented in a progressive jackpot network computer.

FIG. 55 is chart graphing another alternative strategy for funding amain pool and a reserve pool of a progressive jackpot that may beimplemented in a progressive jackpot network computer.

FIG. 56 is chart graphing a still further alternative strategy forfunding a main pool and a reserve pool of a progressive jackpot that maybe implemented in a progressive jackpot network computer.

FIG. 57 is a flowchart of an embodiment of a progressive jackpotreseeding routine for a progressive jackpot having a main pool and areserve pool.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF VARIOUS EMBODIMENTS

Although the following text sets forth a detailed description ofnumerous different embodiments of the invention, it should be understoodthat the legal scope of the invention is defined by the words of theclaims set forth at the end of this patent. The detailed description isto be construed as exemplary only and does not describe every possibleembodiment of the invention since describing every possible embodimentwould be impractical, if not impossible. Numerous alternativeembodiments could be implemented, using either current technology ortechnology developed after the filing date of this patent, which wouldstill fall within the scope of the claims defining the invention.

It should also be understood that, unless a term is expressly defined inthis patent using the sentence “As used herein, the term ‘______’ ishereby defined to mean . . . ” or a similar sentence, there is no intentto limit the meaning of that term, either expressly or by implication,beyond its plain or ordinary meaning, and such term should not beinterpreted to be limited in scope based on any statement made in anysection of this patent (other than the language of the claims). To theextent that any term recited in the claims at the end of this patent isreferred to in this patent in a manner consistent with a single meaning,that is done for sake of clarity only so as to not confuse the reader,and it is not intended that such claim term by limited, by implicationor otherwise, to that single meaning. Finally, unless a claim element isdefined by reciting the word “means” and a function without the recitalof any structure, it is not intended that the scope of any claim elementbe interpreted based on the application of 35 U.S.C. §112, sixthparagraph.

FIG. 1 illustrates one possible embodiment of a Bingo gaming system 10in accordance with the invention. Referring to FIG. 1, the Bingo gamingsystem 10 may include a first group or network 12 of casino gaming units20 operatively coupled to a network computer 22 via a network data linkor bus 24. The Bingo gaming system 10 may include a second group ornetwork 26 of casino gaming units 30 operatively coupled to a networkcomputer 32 via a network data link or bus 34. The first and secondgaming networks 12, 26 may be operatively coupled to each other via anetwork 40, which may comprise, for example, the Internet, a wide areanetwork (WAN), or a local area network (LAN) via a first network link 42and a second network link 44.

The first network 12 of gaming units 20 may be provided in a firstcasino, and the second network 26 of gaming units 30 may be provided ina second casino located in a separate geographic location than the firstcasino. For example, the two casinos may be located in different areasof the same city, or they may be located in different states. Thenetwork 40 may include a plurality of network computers or servercomputers (not shown), each of which may be operatively interconnected.Where the network 40 comprises the Internet, data communication may takeplace over the communication links 42, 44 via an Internet communicationprotocol.

The network computer 22 may be a server computer and may be configuredto control the execution of a multi-player Bingo game played at aplurality of the gaming units 20, and to accumulate and analyze datarelating to the operation of the gaming units 20. For example, thenetwork computer 22 may continuously receive data from each of thegaming units 20 indicative of the dollar amount and number of wagersbeing made on each of the gaming units 20, data indicative of how mucheach of the gaming units 20 is paying out in winnings, data regardingthe identity and gaming habits of players playing each of the gamingunits 20, etc. The network computer 32 may be a server computer and maybe used to perform the same or different functions in relation to thegaming units 30 as the network computer 22 described above.

Although each network 12, 26 is shown to include one network computer22, 32 and four gaming units 20, 30, it should be understood thatdifferent numbers of computers and gaming units may be utilized. Forexample, the network 12 may include a plurality of network computers 22and tens or hundreds of gaming units 20, all of which may beinterconnected via the data link 24. The data link 24 may provided as adedicated hardwired link or a wireless link. Although the data link 24is shown as a single data link 24, the data link 24 may comprisemultiple data links.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of one possible embodiment of one or moreof the gaming units 20. Although the following description addresses thedesign of the gaming units 20, it should be understood that the gamingunits 30 may have the same design as the gaming units 20 describedbelow. It should be understood that the design of one or more of thegaming units 20 may be different than the design of other gaming units20, and that the design of one or more of the gaming units 30 may bedifferent than the design of other gaming units 30. Each gaming unit 20may be any type of casino gaming unit and may have various differentstructures and methods of operation. For exemplary purposes, variousdesigns of the gaming units 20 are described below, but it should beunderstood that numerous other designs may be utilized.

Referring to FIG. 2, the casino gaming unit 20 may include a housing orcabinet 50 and one or more input devices, which may include a coin slotor acceptor 52, a paper currency acceptor 54, a ticket reader/printer 56and a card reader 58, which may be used to input value to the gamingunit 20. A value input device may include any device that can acceptvalue from a customer. As used herein, the term “value” may encompassgaming tokens, coins, paper currency, ticket vouchers, credit or debitcards, smart cards, and any other object representative of value.

If provided on the gaming unit 20, the ticket reader/printer 56 may beused to read and/or print or otherwise encode ticket vouchers 60. Theticket vouchers 60 may be composed of paper or another printable orencodable material and may have one or more of the followinginformational items printed or encoded thereon: the casino name, thetype of ticket voucher, a validation number, a bar code with controland/or security data, the date and time of issuance of the ticketvoucher, redemption instructions and restrictions, a description of anaward, and any other information that may be necessary or desirable.Different types of ticket vouchers 60 could be used, such as bonusticket vouchers, cash-redemption ticket vouchers, casino chip ticketvouchers, extra game play ticket vouchers, merchandise ticket vouchers,restaurant ticket vouchers, show ticket vouchers, etc. The ticketvouchers 60 could be printed with an optically readable material such asink, or data on the ticket vouchers 60 could be magnetically encoded.The ticket reader/printer 56 may be provided with the ability to bothread and print ticket vouchers 60, or it may be provided with theability to only read or only print or encode ticket vouchers 60. In thelatter case, for example, some of the gaming units 20 may have ticketprinters 56 that may be used to print ticket vouchers 60, which couldthen be used by a player in other gaming units 20 that have ticketreaders 56.

If provided, the card reader 58 may include any type of card readingdevice, such as a magnetic card reader or an optical card reader, andmay be used to read data from a card offered by a player, such as acredit card or a player tracking card. If provided for player trackingpurposes, the card reader 58 may be used to read data from, and/or writedata to, player tracking cards that are capable of storing datarepresenting the identity of a player, the identity of a casino, theplayer's gaming habits, etc.

The gaming unit 20 may include one or more audio speakers 62, a coinreturn tray 64, an input control panel 66, upper and lower color videodisplay units 68, 70 for displaying images relating to the game or gamesprovided by the gaming unit 20, a status display 71 for providing playerinformation, such as number of credits remaining, and a light device,such as, for example, illuminated light bezels 84, a lighted topbox 88,a topper 90, and a lighted gaming candle 92, as are well known in theart. The display units 68, 70 may be video displays capable ofdisplaying graphical images associated with the game or games offered atthe gaming unit 20. For example, the display unit 68 may display imagesassociated with the multi-player Bingo game, while the display unit 70may display an alternate presentation of the outcome of the Bingo gamein the form of another casino game, such as slots. Alternatively, one orboth of the displays 68, 70 may be mechanical or electro-mechanicaldevices configured to display game outcomes or other graphics associatedwith the game(s), such as for slot reels or wheels controlled by steppermotors as is well known in the art, or any other desired mechanism.Moreover, the displays 68, 70 may be combined into a single videodisplay device, such as a CRT or LCD.

The audio speakers 62 may generate audio representing sounds such as thenoise of spinning slot machine reels, a dealer's voice, music,announcements or any other audio related to a casino game. The inputcontrol panel 66 may be provided with a plurality of pushbuttons asshown or as touch-sensitive areas in cabinet 50 or on displays 68, 70where implemented as video displays with touch-sensitive screens orother input devices that may be pressed or otherwise actuated by aplayer to select games, make wagers, make gaming decisions, etc. Thestatus display 71 may provide gaming information to the player, such asthe number of credits remaining, the outcome of the current game, thepayout schedule, or the like. The light bezel(s) 84 may be coupled tothe front face of the cabinet 50 and may enclose a plurality of lights,and further may have an aperture, allowing the color video display unit70 to be visible therethrough. The lighted topbox 88, the topper 90, andthe lighted gaming candle 92 may be stylistic elements added to thegaming unit 20 to attract a player's attention, or to provide visualcues to gaming status.

FIG. 2A illustrates one possible embodiment of the control panel 66,which may be used where the gaming unit 20 is a slot machine having aplurality of mechanical or “virtual” reels. Referring to FIG. 2A, thecontrol panel 66 may include a “See Pays” button 72 that, whenactivated, causes the display unit 70 to generate one or more displayscreens showing the odds or payout information for the game or gamesprovided by the gaming unit 20. As used herein, the term “button” isintended to encompass any device that allows a player to make an input,such as an input device that must be depressed to make an inputselection or a display area that a player may simply touch. The controlpanel 66 may include a “Cash Out” button 74 that may be activated when aplayer decides to terminate play on the gaming unit 20, in which casethe gaming unit 20 may return value to the player, such as by returninga number of coins to the player via the coin return tray 64.

For the multi-player Bingo game, the control panel of the gaming unit 20may be provided with a plurality of selection buttons 76, each of whichmay allow the player to select a different number of Bingo cards to playprior to enrolling in the Bingo game. For example, five buttons 76 maybe provided, each of which may allow a player to select one, three,five, seven or nine Bingo cards. Alternatively, where multiple sets ofinterim patterns are provided as described in more detail below, buttons76 may allow a player to select one of the available interim patternsets for use in the Bingo game, each of which may correspond to adifferent wager amount. The control panel 66 may further be providedwith a plurality of selection buttons 78 each of which allows a playerto specify a wager amount for each Bingo card selected, or for eachinterim pattern within a selected pattern set. For example, if thesmallest wager accepted by the gaming unit 20 is a quarter ($0.25), thegaming unit 20 may be provided with five selection buttons 78, each ofwhich may allow a player to select one, two, three, four or fivequarters to wager for each Bingo card selected, or for each interimpattern in a selected pattern set. In that case, if a player were toactivate the “5” button 76 (meaning that five Bingo cards were to beplayed in the Bingo game, or that a interim pattern set requiring a fivecredit wager was selected) and then activate the “3” button 78 (meaningthat three coins per Bingo card or interim pattern were to be wagered),the total wager would be $3.75 (assuming the minimum bet was $0.25).

If the gaming unit 20 provides, for example, a slots display having aplurality of reels and a plurality of paylines which define winningcombinations of reel symbols, the plurality of selection buttons 76 onthe control panel 66 may allow the player to select a different numberof paylines prior to spinning the reels. For example, five buttons 76may be provided, each of which may allow a player to select one, three,five, seven or nine paylines. Further, the plurality of selectionbuttons 78 on the control panel 66 may further allow a player to specifya wager amount for each payline selected. The total wager amountcalculation above may apply equally to the slot display where a playeractivates the “5” button 76 to wager on five paylines, and activates the“3” button 78 to wager three coins per payline. Ultimately, however, theselections made for the alternate display, such as the slots display,translate into a Bingo game wager.

The control panel 66 may include a “Max Bet” button 80 to allow a playerto make the maximum wager allowable for a game. In the above example,where up to nine paylines were provided and up to five quarters could bewagered for each payline selected, the maximum wager would be 45quarters, or $11.25. Depending on the implementation, the gaming unit 20may be configured such that a player entered in the next occurrence ofthe Bingo game when the “Max Bet” button is pressed by the player. Thecontrol panel 66 may include a “Play/Daub” button 82 to allow the playerto enter or enroll in the next occurrence of the Bingo game and toinitiate spinning of the reels of a slots game after a wager has beenmade, and to “daub” or mark the player's Bingo card during the Bingogame as described more fully below. Alternatively, the gaming unit 20may be configured with separate “Play” and “Daub” buttons.

In FIG. 2A, a rectangle is shown around the buttons 72, 74, 76, 78, 80,82. It should be understood that that rectangle simply designates, forease of reference, an area in which the buttons 72, 74, 76, 78, 80, 82may be located. Consequently, the term “control panel” should not beconstrued to imply that a panel or plate separate from the housing 50 ofthe gaming unit 20 is required, and the term “control panel” mayencompass a plurality or grouping of player activatable buttons.

Although one possible control panel 66 is described above, it should beunderstood that different buttons could be utilized in the control panel66, and that the particular buttons used may depend on the game or gamesthat could be played on the gaming unit 20. Although the control panel66 is shown to be separate from the display unit 70, it should beunderstood that the control panel 66 could be generated by the displayunit 70. In that case, each of the buttons of the control panel 66 couldbe a colored area generated by the display unit 70, and some type ofmechanism may be associated with the display unit 70 to detect when eachof the buttons was touched, such as a touch-sensitive screen.

Gaming Unit Electronics

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a number of components that may beincorporated in the gaming unit 20 or alternatively, the networkcomputer 22. Referring to FIG. 3, the gaming unit 20 may include acontroller 100 that may comprise a program memory 102, a microcontrolleror microprocessor (MP) 104, a random-access memory (RAM) 106 and aninput/output (I/O) circuit 108, all of which may be interconnected viaan address/data bus 110. It should be appreciated that although only onemicroprocessor 104 is shown, the controller 100 may include multiplemicroprocessors 104. Similarly, the memory of the controller 100 mayinclude multiple RAMs 106 and multiple program memories 102. Althoughthe I/O circuit 108 is shown as a single block, it should be appreciatedthat the I/O circuit 108 may include a number of different types of I/Ocircuits. The RAM(s) 104 and program memories 102 may be implemented assemiconductor memories, magnetically readable memories, and/or opticallyreadable memories, for example.

Although the program memory 102 is shown in FIG. 3 as a read-only memory(ROM) 102, the program memory of the controller 100 may be a read/writeor alterable memory, such as a hard disk. In the event a hard disk isused as a program memory, the address/data bus 110 shown schematicallyin FIG. 3 may comprise multiple address/data buses, which may be ofdifferent types, and there may be an I/O circuit disposed between theaddress/data buses.

FIG. 3 illustrates that the control panel 66, the coin acceptor 52, thebill acceptor 54, the card reader 58 and the ticket reader/printer 56may be operatively coupled to the I/O circuit 108, each of thosecomponents being so coupled by either a unidirectional or bidirectional,single-line or multiple-line data link, which may depend on the designof the component that is used. The speaker(s) 62 may be operativelycoupled to a sound circuit 112, that may comprise a voice- andsound-synthesis circuit or that may comprise a driver circuit. Thesound-generating circuit 112 may be coupled to the I/O circuit 108.

As shown in FIG. 3, the components 52, 54, 56, 58, 66, 68, 70, 84 and112 may be connected to the I/O circuit 108 via a respective direct lineor conductor. Different connection schemes could be used. For example,one or more of the components shown in FIG. 3 may be connected to theI/O circuit 108 via a common bus or other data link that is shared by anumber of components. Furthermore, some of the components may bedirectly connected to the microprocessor 104 without passing through theI/O circuit 108. Moreover, while not illustrated in the figures, thecomponents 71, 88, 90 and 92 may also be operatively coupled to thecontroller 100. For example, the components 71, 86, 88, 90 and 92 may beconnected to the I/O circuit 108 via a respective direct line or othersimilar connection scheme.

Overall Operation of Gaming Unit

One manner in which one or more of the gaming units 20 (and one or moreof the gaming units 30) may operate is described below in connectionwith a number of flowcharts which represent a number of portions orroutines of one or more computer programs, which may be stored in one ormore of the memories of the controller 100. The computer program(s) orportions thereof may be stored remotely, outside of the gaming unit 20,and may control the operation of the gaming unit 20 from a remotelocation. Such remote control may be facilitated with the use of awireless connection, or by an Internet interface that connects thegaming unit 20 with a remote computer (such as one of the networkcomputers 22, 32) having a memory in which the computer program portionsare stored. The computer program portions may be written in any highlevel language such as C, C++, C#, Java or the like or any low-levelassembly or machine language. By storing the computer program portionstherein, various portions of the memories 102, 106 are physically and/orstructurally configured in accordance with computer programinstructions.

Network Computer/Server Electronics

The network 40, and hence the individual gaming units 20, 30, may becommunicatively connected to network computers or servers 22, 32. Usingnetwork computer 22 as an example, the network computer 22 may be asingle networked computer, or a series of interconnected computershaving access to the network 10 via a gateway or other known networkingsystem. Referring to FIG. 4, generally, the network computer 22 mayinclude a central gaming controller 136 configured to manage, executeand control the individual gaming units 20, 30 and the routines used toplay the multi-player Bingo games. The network computer 22 may include amemory 138 for storing programs and routines, a microprocessor 140 (MP)for executing the stored programs, a random access memory 142 (RAM) andan input/output bus 144 (I/O). The memory 138, microprocessor 140, RAM142 and the I/O bus 144 may be multiplexed together via a common bus, asshown, or may each be directly connected via dedicated communicationslines, depending on the needs of the network 10.

Further, the network computer 22 may be directly connected, hardwired,or indirectly connected through the I/O bus 144 to external componentssuch as a display 146, a control panel 148, a network interface device150 and other peripheral I/O devices 152. Examples of other peripheralsdevice include, but are not limited to, storage devices, wirelessadaptors, printers, and the like. In addition, a database 154 may becommunicatively connected to the central gaming controller 136 andprovide a data repository for the storage and correlation of informationgathered from the individual gaming units 20, 30. The information storedwithin the database 154 may be information relating to individual gamingunits 20, 30 such as gaming unit-specific information like a gaming unitidentification code and/or location code. The database 154 may furtherinclude casino game specific information such as the total amountswagered and paid out, game outcomes, player selection historyinformation, and the like.

Multi-Player Bingo

FIGS. 5A and 5B are a flowchart of a multi-player Bingo game operatingroutine 700 that may have portions stored in the memories of a pluralityof gaming units 20 and the network computer 22 to allow a plurality ofplayers to play a Bingo game against each other. Referring to FIG. 5A,the multi-player Bingo routine 700 may begin operation at block 702 atwhich a first player enrolls in the multi-player Bingo game at one ofthe gaming units 20. In order to enroll in the multi-player Bingo game,a player may initially deposit value in the gaming unit 20 via the coinslot 52, currency acceptor 54, ticket reader 56, card reader 58, or byany other means by which a player may obtain credits on the gaming unit20. Once value is deposited and credits are registered on the gamingunit 20, a player may make game-specific selections for the occurrenceof the Bingo game via one or more selection buttons at input controlpanel 66, or by touching designated portions of the video display units68, 70.

FIG. 6 illustrates an exemplary first player display 800 that may beshown on, for example, the display unit 68 during the performance of themulti-player Bingo routine 700 at a first gaming unit 20, and anexemplary second player display 802 that may be shown, for example, onthe display unit 68 during the performance of the multi-player Bingoroutine 700 at a second gaming unit 20. The first player display 800 mayinclude video images 802 of a Bingo card that may represent the firstplayer's entry in the multi-player Bingo game. In the illustratedembodiment, the Bingo card image 802 may be in the form of a traditionalBingo card as is known in the art and may consist of a 5×5 matrix ofnumbers, with the first column having five numbers selected from therange of 1 to 15 without repeating numbers, the second column havingfive numbers selected from the range of 16 to 30 without repeatingnumbers, the third column having four numbers selected from the range of31 to 45 without repeating numbers and having a “Free Space” spotdisposed in the middle position, the fourth column having five numbersselected from the range of 46 to 60 without repeating numbers, and thefifth column having five numbers selected from the range of 61 to 75without repeating numbers.

The first player display 800 may include video images 804-810corresponding to information relating to the game being executed by thenetwork computer 22 and gaming unit 20. These images may include a gamenumber image 804 for the Bingo game being played by the player at thegaming unit 20, a Bingo win amount image 806 displaying the amountawarded to the first player or players matching the game-winning patternon the Bingo card 802, a pattern win amount image 808 displaying theamount awarded for matching predefined interim win patterns which willbe discussed further hereinafter, and a total win amount image 810displaying the total amount awarded to the player for the Bingo gameindicated at game number 804, and an area 812 that may be used todisplay the numbers in the ball draw for the Bingo game in a mannerillustrated more fully below. In addition, the first player display 800may include images of buttons that, when touched by the player, maycause additional game-related information to be displayed, or maycontrol execution of the multi-player Bingo routine 700.

For example, the first player display 800 may include a “See Pays”button 814 that, when activated, may cause the display unit 68 togenerate one or more display screens showing the pattern or patterns tobe matched, odds of matching the various patterns or winning theavailable awards, or other payout information for the Bingo game and theinterim pattern wins. The first player display 800 may also display a“Play” button 816 that when touched may cause the gaming unit 20 toenroll the player in the next occurrence of the Bingo game, and a “Daub”button 818 that the player may touch to mark matched numbers on theBingo card after the ball draw. The term “daub” in Bingo refers tomarking or covering by the player, or possibly by an electronic Bingohandset, of the numbers or symbols on the Bingo card(s). With respect tothe multi-player Bingo game, “daubing” refers to the player acting tomark or cover the numbers either individually or by initiating a processwherein the gaming unit 20 marks or covers the matched numbers on theBingo card 802. While not shown, those skilled in the art willunderstand that a plurality of player-selectable buttons may also bedisplayed on the first player display 800 of the control panel 66 toallow the player to control the play of the Bingo game. The secondplayer display 820 may be similar to the first player display 800 anddisplay similar images, such as Bingo card 822, game number image 824,Bingo win amount image 826, pattern win amount image 828, total winamount image 830, ball draw area 832, “See Pays” button 834, “Play”button 836, “Daub” button 838, and other control buttons if necessary.

While the Bingo game illustrated herein uses a traditional 5×5 matrix ofnumbers with a free space in the center, those skilled in the art willunderstand that the Bingo game may be configured to use otherconfigurations of numbers, characters or other game indicia arranged inany fashion wherein numbers, characters, or other indicia may be drawnand compared to the configuration, with the first player or playersmatching a predetermined pattern of numbers, characters or other indiciabeing declared the winner. For purposes of this specification, suchconfigurations of numbers, characters or other game indicia may bereferred to as “arrays,” and an array may be any configuration orgrouping of numbers, characters or other game indicia wherein the gameindicia of the array may be compared to game indicia drawn from therange of game indicia available for the multi-player game, and whereinmatched indicia of the array may be compared to a predetermined patternor patterns in order to determine a winner or winners of an occurrenceof the multi-player wagering and/or to award game-winning or otherawards to the players. Such arrays may be configured as two-dimensionalmatrices such as, for example, traditional Bingo cards as describedabove, or in any other arrangement of game indicia wherein matched gameindicia of the array may form patterns.

When the first player enrolls in the Bingo game, the Bingo card 802 maybe selected at random by the controller 100 of the gaming unit 20. Theplayer may be required to play the controller-generated Bingo card 802or, alternatively, the player may be permitted to view other Bingo cards802 and to select a Bingo card 802 for use in the Bingo game. Forexample, once the controller-selected Bingo card 802 is displayed to theplayer at video display 68, the player may be able to cycle throughother Bingo cards 802 by touching the area of the video display 68 wherethe Bingo card 802 is displayed, or by touching other appropriatebuttons either displayed on the video display 68 or located at thecontrol panel 66. In addition to being assigned and/or selecting a Bingocard 802, the player may also enter a wager amount for the Bingo game bypressing the appropriate selection buttons on the first player display800 or control panel 66. Selection of the wager amount is discussedfurther herein below. Once the Bingo card is selected for the firstplayer, and the player enters a wager for the Bingo game, the player mayenroll in a Bingo game by pressing the “Play” button 816. When thecontroller 100 detects that the first player has touched the “Play”button 816, the controller 100 may transmit a message to the networkcomputer 22 indicating that the first player has enrolled in the Bingogame. In the illustrated embodiment, the gaming unit 20 may alsotransmit information to the network computer 22 regarding the content ofthe first player's Bingo card for use by the network computer 22 in amanner discussed more fully below.

Because each Bingo game is played by multiple players, the networkcomputer 22 may be required to wait for the enrollment of additionalplayers before drawing numbers for the occurrence of the Bingo game.Referring back to FIG. 5A, the network computer 22 may determine whethera second player has enrolled in the Bingo game and another gaming unit20 at block 704. If the network computer 22 has not received a messagefrom another gaming unit 20 indicating that a second player has enrolledin the Bingo game, the network computer 22 will continue to wait untilreceiving such a message. At the same time, the first gaming unit 20 maydisplay a message on the first player display 800 informing the firstplayer that the system is waiting for additional players to join theBingo game before beginning the ball draw.

At some point, a second player at a second gaming unit 20 may select aBingo card and desired wagering amount, and touch the play button 836 ofthe second player display 820 to enroll in the Bingo game. The secondgaming unit 20 may detect the touching of the play button 836 by thesecond player and transmit the necessary enrollment message to thenetwork computer 22 to enroll the second player. When the networkcomputer 22 detects the enrollment message from the second gaming unit20, control may pass to a block 706 wherein the network computer 22 maystart an enrollment timer for a predetermined period of time withinwhich additional players may enroll in the Bingo game. The enrollmentperiod may be a fixed amount of time for all occurrences of the Bingogame, or may be capable of being changed to a desired time period by acasino employee at the network computer 22. Further, the networkcomputer 22 may be programmed to adjust the time period dynamically asthe Bingo game is being played in order to maintain a desired averagenumber of players. For example, the network computer 22 may reduce thetime period during heavy play periods to prevent too many players fromenrolling, and increase the time period during light play periods togive more players the opportunity to enroll in an occurrence of theBingo game.

During the enrollment time period, the network computer 22 and othergaming units 20 may enroll additional players in the Bingo game at block708. The enrollment process for the additional players may be similar tothe process for the first two players, with each additional playerselecting a Bingo card, selecting a wager amount, and touching the playbutton of the gaming unit 20 and thereby causing an enrollment messageto be transmitted from the gaming unit 20 to the network computer 22. Ifthe gaming units 20 include alternate outcome displays for displayingthe outcome of the Bingo game in an alternative format, such as a slotsdisplay as discussed below, animated graphics or other display, such asthe spinning of video or electro-mechanical reels, may be initiated atthe gaming units 20 once the second player enrolls in the Bingo game. Atblock 710, the network computer 22 evaluates the enrollment timer todetermine whether the time for additional players to enroll in the Bingogame has expired. If the enrollment timer has not expired, the networkcomputer 22 continues to wait for additional players to enroll in theBingo game. Once the enrollment timer expires, the network computer 22proceeds with conducting the Bingo game for the players that haveenrolled in that occurrence of the Bingo game. Any players enrollingafter the expiration of the enrollment timer may be enrolled in thesubsequent occurrence of the Bingo game in the same manner.Consequently, the network computer 22 may conduct multiple occurrencesof the Bingo game simultaneously.

A game-winning pattern or patterns may be predetermined and used foreach occurrence of the Bingo game. Alternatively, at block 712 thenetwork computer 22 may determine a game-winning pattern to be used forthe occurrence of the Bingo game. The network computer 22 may store aplurality of predetermined game-winning patterns and randomly orserially select one or more of the stored game-winning patterns for eachoccurrence of the Bingo game. The predetermined game-winning patternsmay include game-winning patterns used in traditional Bingo games, suchas rows, columns or diagonals of numbers on the Bingo card 802, fourcorners matches, picture frames, coveralls, and the like. Thepredetermined patterns may also include nontraditional game-winningpatterns such as patterns forming letters, numbers, or other symbols, orany other desired pattern that may be formed by one or more of thenumbers, characters, or other game indicia used to form the Bingo card802 for a player. Alternatively, the game-winning pattern for a givenoccurrence of the Bingo game may be determined at least in part on thenumber of players entered for the occurrence of the Bingo game in orderto approach a desired distribution of the number of balls drawn for thefirst player to match the game-winning pattern in a manner describedmore fully below. Whether based on the number of players or Bingo cardsenrolled for the occurrence of the Bingo game or other criteria, thegame-winning patterns may be generated randomly but consistent withpre-designated parameters, such as number of spots in the game-winningpattern, number of shared spots between two or more game-winningpatterns, and the like. Once the game-winning pattern is determined, thenetwork computer 22 may transmit the game-winning pattern to the gamingunits 20 which in turn may display the game-winning pattern to theplayers on the Bingo displays 800, 820, such as with a shaded area 840on the Bingo cards 802, 822 corresponding to the game-winning pattern.

In some implementations of the multi-player Bingo game, the first playeror players matching the game-winning pattern may be awarded a fixedprize amount, or a prize amount proportionate to the amount wagered bythe player or players on the occurrence of the Bingo game. In thisembodiment, a portion of each players wager on each occurrence of theBingo game may be accumulated in a prize pool from which players may beawarded an additional prize amount for matching the game-winning patternor other pattern in fewer than a predetermined number of balls are drawnfor the occurrence of the Bingo game. For example, a player may beawarded an additional prize from the prize pool for matching a fivenumber pattern when ten or fewer balls have been drawn, or by coveringthe entire Bingo card when fewer than 30 balls have been drawn. Theamount of the additional prize from the prize pool may be determined ina manner described more fully below. In this embodiment, control maypass to a block 714, wherein a percentage or other predetermined portionor each player's wager on the occurrence of the Bingo game may be addedto a prize pool. The portion of each players wager for the prize poolmay be determined at each gaming unit 20 and transmitted to the networkcomputer 22 or other device in the gaming network 10 where at the prizepool is accumulated and stored. Alternatively, the network computer 22may deduct the portion for the prize pool from each of the players'wagers after the players enroll in the Bingo game. While block 714 isillustrated as occurring prior to the ball draw, the additions to theprize pool may occur at any appropriate or desired time during the Bingogame.

In this embodiment, control of the Bingo game routine 700 may pass to ablock 716 wherein the network computer 22 draws numbers from the rangeof 1 to 75 until one or more Bingo card matches the game-winningpattern. The network computer 22 may be configured to randomly selectnumbers from the range of 1 to 75 without repeating numbers, and tocompare the drawn number to the numbers on each players Bingo card tofind matching numbers. As each number is selected and compared to theplayer's game cards, the network computer 22 may also compare thepatterns formed by the matching numbers on each game card to thegame-winning pattern for the occurrence of the Bingo game. Once thenetwork computer 22 determines that one game card has a pattern ofmatched numbers matching the game-winning pattern, the network computer22 may cease selecting numbers for the ball draw and transmit thenumbers for the ball draw to the gaming units 20 corresponding to eachplayer entered in the occurrence of the Bingo game at block 718.

The gaming units 20 receive the numbers for the ball draw from thenetwork computer 22, and compare the drawn numbers to the correspondingplayers' Bingo cards at block 720 of FIG. 5B in a similar manner as thenetwork computer 22 to identify matches between the numbers in the balldraw and the numbers on the players Bingo card. After comparing thenumbers from the ball draw to the numbers on the player's card, thegaming unit 20 may further determine whether patterns formed on theplayer's Bingo card matches the game-winning pattern for the occurrenceof the Bingo game. At block 722, each gaming unit 20 may display theoutcome of the ball draw for the Bingo game at the display unit 68. Inthe illustrated embodiment (FIG. 7), the numbers for the ball draw maybe displayed on the Bingo displays 800, 820 in the ball draw areas 812,832, respectively, with the numbers being displayed in the order thenumbers were selected by the network computer 22. The ball draw displaymay further be enhanced to match the Bingo theme by encircling eachnumber, or graphically displaying each number as being printed on thesurface of a ball 841, and by further adding the associated letter fromthe word “Bingo” corresponding to the column of the Bingo card in whichthe number would appear. Further, where interim pattern awards may beavailable and interim patterns may be evaluated using a predeterminedmaximum number of the balls from the ball draw as discussed furtherbelow, the numbers used for the interim pattern awards may be displayedwith distinctive markings, coloration or other distinguishing indiciafor easy identification. Additionally, the numbers on the players' Bingocards 802, 822 matching numbers selected by the network computer 22 inthe ball draw may be highlighted on the Bingo cards 802, 822, such as bydisplaying phantom marks 842 to assist the players in identifying whichnumbers on the Bingo cards 802, 822 have been matched.

The multi-player Bingo game may be implemented such that once at leastone player matches the game-winning pattern, the game is over and theplayer or players matching the game-winning pattern receive thecorresponding Bingo win award. If the gaming units 20 include alternateoutcome displays for displaying the outcome of the Bingo game in analternative format, the alternate outcome display may also show theplayer's outcome for the Bingo game, such as by stopping the reels ofslots display in positions corresponding to the outcome of the Bingogame. However, the multi-player Bingo game may be implemented such thatthe players may be required to perform a physical act to cause thematching numbers to be marked on the players' Bingo cards. In fact, sucha physical act may be a regulatory requirement in the jurisdiction inwhich the multi-player Bingo game is implemented. In the embodiment ofthe Bingo game routine 700 illustrated in FIGS. 5A and 5B, players maybe required to daub in order to have the matching numbers marked ontheir Bingo cards, and the winning players may be required to daub theirBingo cards in order to claim the award for the occurrence of the Bingogame. In this embodiment, at block 722, each gaming unit 20 may beconfigured to display prompts to the players, such as prompts 844, 846on the Bingo displays 800, 820, respectively, of FIG. 8, instructing theplayers to daub in order to complete the Bingo game. The same prompt maybe displayed for all players, or different prompts may be displayed toplayers who may have a winning Bingo card. For example, as illustratedin FIG. 8, the first player with Bingo card 802 may be one of the firstplayers to match the game-winning pattern. In this case, the prompt 844displayed to the first player may instruct the player to daub the Bingocard to claim the Bingo game prize. The Bingo game prize may be claimedby the winning player by touching the “Daub” button 818 to acknowledgethe prompt. The remaining players, such as the second player, that havenot matched the game-winning pattern may be shown a prompt 846 that maymerely instruct the players to daub in order to complete the Bingo game,which may be accomplished by touching the “Daub” button 838.

Once the initial ball draw is transmitted from the network computer 22to the gaming units 20, and the ball draw and phantom marks 842, if any,are displayed to the players at their respective gaming units 20,control may pass to a block 724 wherein a sleep timer may be initiatedwith a predetermined amount of time within which the winning player orplayers must daub their Bingo cards in order to claim the Bingo gameaward. A sleep timer may be set at each gaming unit 20 at which theplayer matches the game-winning pattern, or a single timer may be set atthe network computer 22. During the sleep timer period, the gaming units20 may mark the matching numbers on the players Bingo cards as theplayers touch the corresponding “Daub” buttons 818, 838. Shown in FIG.9, the phantom marks 842 on the Bingo cards 802, 822 may be changed intodaub marks 848 by the gaming units 20 as the gaming units 20 detect theplayers touching the “Daub” buttons 818, 838. Also during the sleeptimer period, the network computer 22 and/or gaming units 20 mayevaluate whether one or more players matching the game-winning patternhas daubed the players Bingo card at block 728. If the winner or winnersof the occurrence of the Bingo game have daubed their Bingo cards,control passes to a block 730 wherein the Bingo win award may bedetermined for the winning player or players at either the correspondinggaming units 20, or at the network computer 22. As previously discussed,the Bingo win award may be a fixed award amount, an amount proportionateto the players wager, a portion or all of an accumulated prize pool, ora combination of various award amounts.

After the Bingo game award or awards are determined, control may pass toblock 732 wherein an award image, such as the award image 850illustrated in FIG. 10, may be displayed to the winning players at thecorresponding gaming units 20. The award image 850 may include a summaryof the award amount, a congratulatory message to the winning player orplayers, and other images that may enhance the winning experience of theplayer or players. The award image 850 may be displayed for apredetermined amount of time or until the player touches the displayunit 68 to acknowledge the display of the game award. At this time, analternate outcome display at the gaming unit 20 may also show theplayer's outcome for the Bingo game, such as by stopping the reels ofslots display in positions corresponding to the outcome of the Bingogame. After the award graphic is displayed, control may pass to a block734 wherein the credits at the gaming units 20 for the winning playersare incremented by the award amount. As illustrated in FIG. 11, theBingo game award may further be reflected at the Bingo display 800 byupdating the Bingo win amount image 806 and the total win amount image810 to reflect the amount won by the player for the corresponding Bingogame.

If the network computer 22 and game units 20 do not detect that thewinner or winners of the Bingo game have daubed their Bingo cards atblock 728, control passes to a block 736 that determines whether thesleep timer has expired. If the sleep timer has not expired, controlpasses back to block 726 wherein the gaming units 20 continue to markthe Bingo cards of the corresponding players as the players touch the“Daub” button 818, 838. If the sleep timer expires without any winner orwinners of the Bingo game daubing their Bingo cards, control passes to ablock 738 wherein the network computer 22 may determine whether all theplayers have slept through their opportunity to win the Bingo game. Ifplayers remain that have not slept through their opportunity to win theBingo game, i.e., players whose Bingo cards have not yet matched thegame-winning pattern, control passes to a block 740 wherein the winneror winners who have failed to daub their Bingo cards are eliminated frombeing able to claim the prize for the Bingo game. For example, after thepotential winner sleeps through the player's opportunity to win theBingo game, the network computer 22 may flag or otherwise indicate thatthe player has slept through the player's opportunity to win theoccurrence of the Bingo game. Additionally, the players sleeping throughthe period for daubing the players' winning Bingo cards may be notifiedthat the right to claim an award for the Bingo game has beenrelinquished by displaying an image on the video display 68 of thecorresponding gaming unit 20, such as the image 852 on the Bingo display800 shown in FIG. 12. However, where multiple game-winning patterns areused in the Bingo game, a player sleeping through a match of one of thegame-winning pattern may be eliminated from claiming that Bingo win, butmay be permitted to win the Bingo game if the player matches anothergame-winning pattern later in the ball draw and successfully daubs theirBingo card.

After eliminating the sleeping player or players, control may return toblock 716 wherein the network computer 22 may draw additional numbersuntil at least one Bingo card of the remaining players matches thegame-winning pattern. The Bingo game routine 700 continues in the mannerpreviously described, with the game computer 22 transmitting the numbersto game units 200 at block 718, and the game units evaluating theplayers Bingo cards at block 720. At block 722, the display of theoutcome of the Bingo game displayed at the video display 68 at the gameunits 20 may be updated to reflect the continuation of the ball draw.For example, as shown in FIG. 12, the Bingo display 820 may be updatedto display the additional numbers in the ball draw area 832, displayadditional phantom marks 842 at the numbers on the Bingo card 822matching the newly drawn Bingo numbers, and display the prompt 844instructing the player to daub to claim the players Bingo prize. Thesleep timer may be reinitiated at block 724, and the gaming units 20 maymark the players Bingo cards as the players touch the “Daub” button 818,838 at block 726 (see additional daub marks 848 at FIG. 13) until eitherall the winners daub (block 728) or the sleep timer expires (block 736).If the remaining player or players matching the game-winning patternhave daubed their Bingo cards, Bingo win awards are determined at block730 and the award image 850 may be displayed at the video display 86 ofthe gaming units 20 corresponding to the winning players at block 732(see, e.g., award image 815 displayed at Bingo display 820 in FIG. 14)and the Bingo award amounts may be credited to the winning players atblock 734 (see, e.g., Bingo win amount 826 and total win amount 830 onBingo display 820 at FIG. 15).

Returning to block 738, if the network computer 22 determines that thelast remaining player has slept through daubing the players Bingo card,several alternatives are possible for terminating the Bingo game. In theillustrated embodiment, control passes to a block 742 wherein the gamingunits 20 involved in the occurrence of the Bingo game may sleepinfinitely until one of the gaming units 20 detects a player daubingtheir Bingo card by touching the “Daub” button 838. Once the lastremaining player daubs, control may pass to block 730 to conclude theoccurrence of the Bingo game. During this time, casino personnel may bealerted to the suspended Bingo game by displaying messages at the gamingunits 20, network computer 22, or any other component of the Bingogaming system 10 used to monitor the activity occurring in the Bingogaming system 10, by illuminating the candles 92 mounted on the gamingunits 20, or by any other mechanism available within the system foralerting casino personnel to abnormal conditions within the Bingo gamingsystem 10. Alternatively, the occurrence of the Bingo game may beterminated after a predetermined period of time, with the wagers on theterminated game being retained by the Bingo gaming system 10. During thetime that the last remaining player sleeps, players that earlier sleptthrough their Bingo wins may be permitted to daub their Bingo cards,collect interim pattern awards if any, and continue playing subsequentBingo games without waiting for the last remaining player to claim theBingo win.

While the routine 700 illustrates the network computer 22 drawingnumbers and comparing the drawn numbers to the Bingo cards until aplayer or players matches the game-winning pattern, other methods arecontemplated for conducting the ball draw and comparison to the Bingocards. FIGS. 16A and 16B illustrate an alternative multi-player Bingogame routine 750 wherein the network computer 22 may draw allseventy-five balls before any balls are compared to the Bingo cards. Theroutine 750 may have the same general flow as the routine 700 of FIGS.5A and 5B, with similar process steps in the flowcharts being identifiedby the same reference numbers. The enrollment of the players in anoccurrence of the Bingo game at blocks 702, 706 and 708 may proceed aspreviously discussed. However, the gaming units 20 may not be requiredto transmit information relating to the players' Bingo cards to thenetwork computer 22 since the Bingo cards may be compared to the balldraw at the gaming units 20 only. The routine 750 may continue aspreviously discussed for routine 700 until control passes to a block 752wherein the network computer 22 may randomly draw all seventy-fivenumbers to determine the order for the entire ball draw.

After drawing all seventy-five numbers, the network computer 22 maytransmit the numbers to the gaming units 20 at block 718, and the gamingunits 20 may evaluate the corresponding Bingo cards at block 720 todetermine how many numbers from the ball draw are required for the Bingocards to match the game-winning pattern. After the gaming units 20evaluate the Bingo cards, control may pass to a block 754 wherein thegaming units 20 may transmit the number of balls required for thecorresponding Bingo cards to match the game-winning pattern to thenetwork computer 22. Upon receiving the numbers from the gaming units20, at block 756, the network computer 22 may declare a winner orwinners for the Bingo game by comparing the number of balls to Bingotransmitted by the gaming units 20.

After determining the winner or winners, the network computer 22 maytransmit the number of balls to Bingo for the winner or winners to thegaming units 20, each of which may determine whether the correspondingplayer is a winner by comparing the number of balls to Bingo transmittedby the network computer to the number of balls to Bingo for the player.Control may then pass to block 722 and the routine 750 may conclude theoccurrence of the Bingo game in a similar manner as previously describedfor routine 700. In the event a player sleeps through a win, once thesleeping player is eliminated at block 740, control pass may back toblock 756 wherein the network computer 22 may declare the player orplayers requiring the next fewest balls to match the game-winningpattern the new winner of the Bingo game. By drawing all seventy-fiveballs at once and transmitting the entire ball draw to the gaming units20 in a single network communication, the routine 750 may be able toreduce the amount of network traffic in the Bingo gaming system 10.

In a further alternative method for conducting the ball draw andcomparison of the ball draw to the Bingo cards that may closely mirrorthe game flow of a traditional Bingo game, the network computer 22 maydraw one number at a time and transmit each drawn number to the gamingunits 20 for comparison the corresponding Bingo cards. FIGS. 17A and 17Billustrate an alternative multi-player Bingo game routine 760 whereinthe network computer 22 may draw a single number and transmit the numberto the gaming units 20 for comparison to the Bingo cards. The routine760 may have the same general flow as the routine 700 of FIGS. 5A and5B, with similar process steps in the flowcharts being identified by thesame reference numbers. The enrollment of the players in an occurrenceof the Bingo game at blocks 702, 706 and 708 may proceed as previouslydiscussed. However, the gaming units 20 may not be required to transmitinformation relating to the players' Bingo cards to the network computer22 since the Bingo cards may be compared to the ball draw at the gamingunits 20 only. The routine 760 may continue as previously discussed forroutine 700 until control passes to a block 762 wherein the networkcomputer 22 may randomly draw one number from the range of 1 to 75.

After drawing the number, the network computer 22 may transmit thenumber to the gaming units 20 at a block 764, and the gaming units 20may evaluate the corresponding Bingo cards at block 720 to determinewhether the number matches a number on the Bingo card. After the gamingunits 20 evaluate the Bingo cards, control may pass to block 722 toupdate the display at the gaming units with the drawn number and phantommarks at matching numbers on the Bingo cards. Control may then pass to ablock 766 wherein each gaming unit 20 may determine whether thegame-winning pattern is matched by a pattern on the corresponding Bingocard. If at least one Bingo card matches the game-winning pattern,control may pass to a block 768 wherein the gaming units 20 having Bingocards matching the game-winning pattern may transmit a correspondingmessage to the network computer 22, and the network computer 22 maydeclare a winner or winners for the Bingo game based on the messagestransmitted by the gaming units 20 and transmit a corresponding messageto the gaming units 20. Control may then pass to block 724 and theroutine 760 may conclude the occurrence of the Bingo game in a similarmanner as previously described for routine 700. If none of the Bingocards matches the game-winning pattern, control may pass back to block762 wherein the network computer 22 may randomly draw another number,and may continue in this manner until one of the Bingo cards matches thegame-winning pattern.

In a still further alternative method for conducting the ball draw andcomparison of the ball draw to the Bingo cards, the network computer 22may draw a batch of numbers, such as five, ten, fifteen or other desiredsize batch, and transmit the drawn batch of numbers to the gaming units20 for comparison the corresponding Bingo cards. FIGS. 18A and 18Billustrate an alternative multi-player Bingo game routine 770 whereinthe network computer 22 may draw a batch of numbers and transmit thebatch of numbers to the gaming units 20 for comparison to the Bingocards. The routine 770 may have the same general flow as the routine 700of FIGS. 5A and 5B, with similar process steps in the flowcharts beingidentified by the same reference numbers. The enrollment of the playersin an occurrence of the Bingo game at blocks 702, 706 and 708 mayproceed as previously discussed. However, the gaming units 20 may not berequired to transmit information relating to the players' Bingo cards tothe network computer 22 since the Bingo cards may be compared to theball draw at the gaming units 20 only. The routine 770 may continue aspreviously discussed for routine 700 until control passes to a block 772wherein the network computer 22 may randomly draw a batch of numbersfrom the range of 1 to 75.

After drawing the batch of numbers, the network computer 22 may transmitthe batch of numbers to the gaming units 20 at block 718, and the gamingunits 20 may evaluate the corresponding Bingo cards at block 720 todetermine whether the numbers in the batch of numbers match numbers onthe Bingo card. Control may then pass to a block 774 wherein each gamingunit 20 may determine whether the game-winning pattern is matched by apattern on the corresponding Bingo card, and on which number from thebatch of numbers the game-winning pattern was matched. If at least oneBingo card matches the game-winning pattern, control may pass to a block776 wherein the gaming units 20 having Bingo cards matching thegame-winning pattern may transmit a corresponding message to the networkcomputer 22, including the number on which the game-winning pattern wasmatched. The network computer 22 may declare a winner or winners for theBingo game based on the messages transmitted by the gaming units 20 andthe number on which the game-winning pattern was matched, and transmit acorresponding message to the gaming units 20. Control may then pass toblock 722 wherein the outcome of the Bingo game may be displayed, andthe routine 770 may conclude the occurrence of the Bingo game in asimilar manner as previously described for routine 700. If none of theBingo cards matches the game-winning pattern, control may pass back toblock 772 wherein the network computer 22 may randomly draw anotherbatch of numbers, and may continue in this manner until one of the Bingocards matches the game-winning pattern.

When a player sleeps through a Bingo win, it may be possible thatanother player may match the game-winning pattern on a later-drawnnumber within the same batch of numbers. It this situation, the otherplayer should be given the opportunity to win the Bingo win award beforeanother batch of numbers is drawn by the network computer 22. After thesleeping winner or winners are eliminated at block 740, control may passto a block 778 to determine whether other game-winning pattern matchesoccurred with numbers in the same batch of numbers. If another playerwill match the game-winning pattern, control may pass to a block 780wherein the network computer 22 may declare the other player or playersthe new winner or winners of the Bingo game. After the new winner orwinners is declared, control passes back to block 722 to update thedisplays of the Bingo game outcome at the gaming units 20. If no otherplayers will match the game-winning pattern based on the current batchof numbers at block 778, control may pass back to block 772 where thenetwork computer 22 may select the next batch of numbers.

In routines 760 and 770, the display of the outcome of the Bingo game atblock 722 is illustrated as occurring either before (routine 760) orafter (routine 770) determining whether the game-winning pattern ismatched. In either routine 760 or 770, the display of the outcome mayoccur in either order based on the desired configuration of the system.If the multi-player Bingo game is configured such that the delay betweendrawing a number or batch of numbers is discernible by the players, theoutcome display may occur before determining whether the game-winningpattern is matched so that the players may observe the numbers as theyare drawn and the phantom marking of numbers on the Bingo cards as theball draw proceeds. However, if the system is configured to conduct theball draw rapidly such that the delay between drawn numbers may not bediscernible by the players, it may be desired to update the outcomedisplay after the game-winning pattern is matched by one of the players.

While the general flows for the various multi-player Bingo game routinesare discussed herein, the game play for the multi-player Bingo game maybe modified as necessary based on system design and/or regulatoryrequirements, design preferences and the like. For example, where two ormore players may remain in an occurrence of the Bingo game, and whereineach of the remaining players may require the same number of balls tomatch the game-winning pattern, the Bingo win award may be awarded tothe remaining players based whether some or all of the players daubtheir Bingo cards. If all remaining players daub their Bingo cards, theBingo win award may be split between the remaining players. If less thanall of the remaining players daub their Bingo cards before theexpiration of the sleep timer, the routine may be configured either tosplit the Bingo win award between the remaining players that have daubedtheir Bingo cards, or to split the Bingo win award between all theremaining players if any of the remaining players daub their Bingo cardsbefore the expiration of the sleep timer. Similarly, if all theremaining players sleep through their Bingos, the Bingo game may sleepinfinitely until one of the remaining players daubs their Bingo card.Once one of the remaining players daubs their Bingo card, the routinemay be configured either to pay the entire Bingo win award to theremaining player to first daub their Bingo card, or to split the Bingowin award between all the remaining players if any of the remainingplayers daub their Bingo cards before the expiration of the sleep timer.

The routines may also be modified in implementations where a player maynot be required to daub their Bingo cards to receive the Bingo winaward. In these implementations, the portions of the routines relatingto the sleep timer and daubing, and to eliminating sleeping players anddeclaring additional winners may be omitted. Even in implementationswhere players may sleep through a Bingo win, the consequences ofsleeping through the Bingo win may be varied as desired. For example, asillustrated, the player who sleeps through a Bingo win may be shut outof collecting the Bingo win even if the player daubs the Bingo cardafter the sleep timer expires and the player is eliminated.Alternatively, the player initially sleeping through a Bingo win may beprovided with the opportunity to claim the Bingo win award if the playerdaubs the Bingo card before a subsequently declared winning player daubstheir Bingo card.

Determining Game-Winning Pattern Bingo Win Amount

As illustrated above, once the winner or winners of the Bingo game isdetermined and, if necessary the winner or winners daub their Bingocards, the Bingo win award amount may be determined at block 730. Manydifferent and varying methods for determining the Bingo game awardamount may be implemented for the multi-player Bingo game. In part,particular methods may be implemented to support allowing playerswagering different amounts on the Bingo game to participate in the sameoccurrence of the Bingo game and/or to compete for the same progressivejackpots. In perhaps the simplest method, the Bingo win award may be afixed amount, such as a predetermined number of credits, awarded to eachof the winners, or a percentage of winning player's wager on the Bingogame. These methods may minimize the complexity and processing requiredto determine the Bingo win award.

In order to enhance the players' gaming experience, other methods fordetermining the Bingo win award may provide for the awarding of Bingowin award amounts that vary from game to game, and perhaps from winnerto winner within a given occurrence of the Bingo game. In oneembodiment, the Bingo game award may be determined based in part on thenumber of balls needed by the winning player to match the game-winningpattern. Players matching the game-winning pattern in fewer numbers mayreceive a larger Bingo game award than players matching the game-winningpattern in more numbers. For example, in one embodiment of Bingo winaward determination, a player matching the game-winning pattern within apredetermined maximum number of balls, such as thirty-five balls, may beawarded a progressive jackpot or a portion of an accumulated prize pool.A player matching the game-winning pattern in more than the maximumnumber of balls may be awarded a smaller Bingo win award, such as anominal fixed amount or percentage of the player's wager as describedabove, that may be deducted from the Bingo win prize pool.

The prize pool for the Bingo win award may be funded by players' wagers,with the prize pool being incremented with a predetermined percentage ofeach player's wager on each occurrence of the Bingo game. As previouslymentioned, the winning player may be awarded the entire prize pool as aprogressive jackpot, or a percentage of the prize pool. The Bingo winaward amount may also be determined in part on the amount of theplayer's wager so that players making larger wagers on the Bingo gamemay receive a proportionately larger portion of the prize pool uponwinning the Bingo game.

For example, a player matching the game-winning pattern for the Bingogame in fewer than thirty-five balls may be entitled to receive ninetypercent of the prize pool. The amount of the prize pool that the winningplayer actually receives from the prize pool may be adjusted to the sizeof the winning player's wager compared to the maximum wager that may bemade on the Bingo game. For a given occurrence of the Bingo game, thewinning player may wager $5.00 on the Bingo game and the maximumpermitted wager may be $90.00. The Bingo win award for the player may bedetermined by multiplying the amount in the prize pool by ninetypercent, and then multiplying the result by the ratio of the player'swager ($5.00) to the maximum wager ($90.00). If the accumulated prizepool for the Bingo game is $1000 when the player wins the Bingo game,the player's Bingo win award=($1000×0.9)×($5.00/$90.00)=$50.00. When theBingo win award is dispensed to the winning player, the Bingo win awardis deducted from the prize pool. Consequently, the accumulated prizepool may be reduced to $950 after the winning player receives the $50.00Bingo win award.

Of course, other methods for awarding all or a portion of the prize poolare contemplated. Multiple levels of Bingo win awards providingdiffering percentages of the prize pool to winning players based on thenumber of balls required to match the game-winning pattern. For example,matching the game-winning pattern in fewer than 15 numbers may providethe opportunity to receive ninety percent of the prize pool, whilematching the game-winning pattern in fewer than thirty numbers mayprovide the opportunity to receive seventy percent of the prize pool,and matching the game-winning pattern in fewer than forty-five balls mayprovide the opportunity to receive fifty percent of the prize pool.Moreover, the predetermined maximum number of balls for matching thegame-winning pattern may be varied based on the complexity of thegame-winning pattern. For more complex game-winning patterns, themaximum number of balls may be greater than the maximum number of ballsfor matching less complex patterns having greater probabilities of beingmatched in fewer numbers. Similarly, the percentage of the prize poolthat may be awarded may be greater for more complex game-winningpatterns than for less complex game-winning patterns for the samepredetermined maximum number of balls for the same reason.

A progressive prize pool for the Bingo game winners may be fundeddirectly from the players' wagers, such as in the manner describedabove, or, alternatively, may be funded based on the occurrence ofcertain interim pattern outcomes in the primary Bingo game. Specificinterim win amounts based on predetermined interim patterns may be addedto a progressive prize pool in lieu of, or in addition to, providing adirect award to the player. The progressive prize pool may be private toeach player (i.e. gaming unit 20) or may be linked and available to bewon by any of the players.

In a further aspect of the present invention, the expected return to aplayer for a Bingo win may be adjusted to be consistent with the amountwagered by the player on the Bingo game where the odds of the playermatching the game-winning pattern are the same regardless of the amountwagered on the Bingo game. One method for adjusting the expected returnmay be to multiply any Bingo win award amount by the player's wageramount. Alternatively, the odds of winning a particular award amount maybe varied based on the player's wager. For example, upon matching theBingo game-winning pattern, the player may win the opportunity to win aprogressive jackpot, with the player's odds of winning the jackpot beingrelated to the player's wager amount. The progressive pool may be fundedby a percentage of the wager amount for each player for each game. Whena player matches the Bingo game-winning pattern, a feature event, suchas a wheel spin, may take place. The player's odds of winning thefeature event may be based on the player's wager (e.g., twice the wagermay give the player twice the chance of winning the feature event). Ifthe player wins the feature event, the player may receive theprogressive jackpot. If the player loses the feature event, theprogressive jackpot may carry over to subsequent occurrences of theBingo game. The feature event may take place immediately following eachoccurrence of the Bingo game, or may occur at a predetermined scheduledtime after a sufficient number of qualifying entries of Bingo gamewinners occur. The qualifying entries may be determined, for example, bythe accrual of points by the players for the Bingo game.

The progressive jackpot may be a multi-tier progressive jackpot. Forexample, the progressive jackpot may have a smaller progressive awardedas frequently as a Bingo win award. In addition, the progressive jackpotmay have a much larger progressive that may be awarded infrequently. Thelarger progressive may even be a wide area progressive wherein thegaming units 20 of the Bingo gaming system 10 may be distributed in aplurality of gaming locations. The large progressive may cover all ofthe gaming locations, while the small progressive may be fund by andawarded to players at one of the gaming locations.

The feature event in the above embodiments may be a secondary Bingogame. Players winning the primary Bingo game may be awarded chances toparticipate in the secondary Bingo game that may award the progressivejackpots. Each chance at the secondary Bingo game may consist of a Bingocard for the secondary Bingo game, and a player may receive multipleBingo cards based on the wager amount. The secondary Bingo game may beplayed with a fixed number ball draw, or may be played until one or moreplayers match a secondary Bingo game-winning pattern. Some outcomes ofthe secondary Bingo game may result in the awarding of the smallprogressive, while other more difficult outcomes (e.g., harder patternsor fewer balls to Bingo) may result in the awarding of the largeprogressive.

In another embodiment, a fixed award amount in lieu of or in addition tothe large progressive may be awarded to the Bingo winners. The fixedawards may or may not impact the funding of the large progressive. Thefunding of the progressive jackpot may be based upon all game play forthe Bingo game, regardless of when a player qualifies for a chance atthe progressive jackpot, or may be funded in conjunction with playersqualifying for chances at the progressive jackpot.

As an alternative to determining the Bingo win amount based on thematched game-winning pattern and the number of balls drawn, matching thegame-winning pattern may provide the player with the opportunity toreceive a Bingo win amount based at least in part on selections made bythe player. The opportunity to make selections to determine the Bingowin amount may be provided at the conclusion of each occurrence of theBingo game, or may be provided as a bonus to the winning player(s) formatching a particular pattern, or for matching the game-winning patternwithin a predetermined number of balls.

In one embodiment, the player may be able to select one or more of aplurality of available game-winning award amounts presented to theplayer at the video display 68. The network computer 22 or gaming units20 may store a pool of available game-winning awards for the Bingo game.When a player(s) match the game-winning pattern, the network computer22, for example, may randomly or sequentially select a plurality of theavailable game-winning awards from the pool and forward the selectedawards to the corresponding gaming unit(s) 20. The gaming unit(s) 20 maythen display graphics to the player(s) for selecting one or more of theavailable game-winning awards to determine the Bingo game-winning awardamount awarded to the player(s). After one or more of the availableawards are awarded to the player(s), and if each available game-winningaward in the pool is only to be awarded once, the pool of availablegame-winning awards may be updated to indicate that the awards have beenawarded to the player(s) and, consequently, are unavailable to beawarded to subsequent winning players. In order to prevent awarding oneof the game-winning awards to two different players, a game-winningaward selected from the pool may be temporarily marked until theplayer's game-winning award is determined. If the game-winning awardfrom the pool is used in determining the player's game-winning award,the entry for the game-winning award in the pool may be permanentlymarked as unavailable to prevent subsequent selection. If thegame-winning award from the pool is not used, the temporary mark for thegame-winning award may be removed so that the game-winning award isavailable for subsequent selection and use in determining thegame-winning award for a subsequent occurrence of the game.

It is contemplated that the graphical displays allowing winning playersto make selections may take many forms. In one embodiment shown in FIGS.19-23, five available game-winning awards may be selected from the pool,and the graphical display 800 may include five selection symbols, suchas money bags or treasure chests 854-858, each corresponding to one ofthe available awards as illustrated in FIG. 19. The selection symbolsmay alternatively relate to a puzzle or maze that the player must solveor navigate to determine their game-winning award. The player may beprompted by a prompt image 860 to select one of the awards by touchingone of the symbols 854-858. When the player touches one of the symbols,such as treasure chest 854, an award amount image 862 corresponding tothe selected treasure chest 854 may be displayed to the player in placeof or overlaying the treasure chest 854 as illustrated in FIG. 20.

The player may be permitted to select only one symbol 854-858 todetermine the Bingo win award or, as indicated by the prompt image 860,the player may be permitted select additional symbols 854-858 toincrease the player's Bingo win award. Each of the award amounts may bea predetermined number of credits, or may be in the form of amultiplier, as illustrated by the award image 864 in FIG. 21, or otheroperand that may change the amount of the accumulated Bingo win award.The Bingo win award accumulation may continue until the player hasselected a predetermined number of the symbols 854-858. Alternatively,one of the symbols 854-858 may be associated with a terminating symbol,such as skull and crossbones 866 displayed in FIG. 22, that whenselected by the player terminates the Bingo win award selection processand returns the player to the Bingo game display 800. The game-winningawards selected to that point may be summed to determine the Bingo winaward, or the Bingo win award may be set to the largest of the selectedgame-winning award amounts. Moreover, any multipliers or other awardenhancements may be applied as necessary to determine the Bingo winaward. After the Bingo win award is determined, the Bingo win amount 806and total win amount 810 may be updated to display the amount won by theplayer as shown in FIG. 23, and the credits for the player on the gamingunit may be incremented accordingly.

As a further alternative to selecting a plurality of available awardsillustrated in FIGS. 24-27, the Bingo theme may be perpetuated bydisplaying a plurality of selection symbols, such as money bags 868-870,on the video display 800, each corresponding to a further Bingo card orother corresponding award game array to be used in determining theplayer's award amount. The further Bingo cards may be related to theplayer's original Bingo card such that none of the numbers on theoriginal Bingo card appear on the further Bingo cards, or the furtherBingo cards may be generated independently of the original Bingo card.Moreover, the further Bingo cards may be determined at any time duringthe Bingo game, including at the time the player enrolls and selects theoriginal Bingo card or after the winning player or players are declared.The further Bingo cards may vary from game to game, or may be a fixedset of predetermined further Bingo cards, or with specificcharacteristics relative to each other or the feature-triggeringgame-winning pattern, that may be shuffled with respect to the symbols868-870 with which they are associated from game to game. Once thesymbols 868-870 are displayed, a prompt image 872 may instruct theplayer to touch one of the symbols 868-870 to reveal the correspondingfurther Bingo card.

When the player touches one of the displayed symbols 868-870, thecorresponding further Bingo card 874 may be displayed to the player, andthe Bingo card 874 may be marked by the gaming unit 20 with daub marks848 based on the numbers in the ball draw area 812 from the Bingo gameas shown in FIG. 25. The further Bingo card 874 may be highlighted witha Bingo win award pattern 876 that may be matched to win a Bingo gameaward. The Bingo win award pattern 876 is illustrated as an “X,” but maybe any desired pattern or patterns defined using any number of spots.The player may be provided with multiple Bingo win award patterns tomatch, each of which may be highlighted on the further Bingo card 874and may result in the same or a different Bingo game award amount, or amultiplier or other award enhancement, when matched. Alternatively, theBingo win award pattern or patterns may be displayed elsewhere on thedisplay 800, or may be viewable by touching or pressing a “See Pays”button.

If the selected further Bingo card 874 matches a predetermined Bingo winaward pattern 876, the player may receive the corresponding Bingo winaward amount that may be displayed to the player with an award image878. If no patterns are matched, the further Bingo card may yield noaward amount. As with the previous embodiment, the player may bepermitted to select only one symbol 868-870 to determine the Bingo winaward or, as indicated by the prompt image 872, the player may bepermitted to select additional symbols 868-870 to increase the player'sBingo win award. The Bingo win award accumulation may continue until theplayer has selected a predetermined number of the symbols 868-870.Alternatively, one of the symbols 868-870 may be associated with aterminating symbol, such as bank robber 880 displayed in FIG. 26, thatwhen selected by the player terminates the Bingo win award selectionprocess and returns the player to the Bingo game display 800. After theBingo win award is determined, the Bingo win amount 806 and total winamount 810 may be updated to display the amount won by the player asshown in FIG. 27, and the credits for the player on the gaming unit maybe incremented accordingly.

It may be desirable to provide Bingo win awards by methods other thanpaying out a fixed amount or performing a calculation. For example,matching the game-winning pattern may entitle the player(s) to a chanceat winning a prize through another game or bonus mechanism. The chanceat winning the prize may be any of a wide range of bonus features knownin the art. The chance may entitle the player to a spin of a prize wheelhaving a plurality of positions corresponding to credit or cash awardamounts, or possibly positions awarding the player an entry into alottery. Such chances at winning a prize may or may not involve playerinteraction in determining the prize awarded to the player. Further, theaward for the chance at winning a prize or bonus feature may be a fixedaward, a progressive award, a non-monetary prize, free game play, entryinto another event, or any combination of these or other types ofawards, and the player may or may not be provided with the ability toselect the nature of the Bingo win award.

Alternatively, the Bingo win award may be in the form of points, stamps,coupons or other non-monetary award that may be redeemable for prizessuch as cash or other monetary award, non-cash prizes, game play, casinogoods and/or services, gift certificates, chances are winning furtherprizes or awards, and the like. These awards may be accrued until theplayer accumulates enough points, stamps, coupons or other similarawards to redeem for a particular one or more of the available prizes.Reaching a point threshold may be enough to trigger the qualified awardor feature. One embodiment may include a scheduled feature event, suchas a Big Wheel Spin occurring every hour or half hour. Any playeraccumulating enough points may qualify for a potential win in thefeature event, with the odds of winning the feature event or the amountof the award in the feature event possibly being related to the numberof points the player accumulated prior to the occurrence of the featureevent.

In a further embodiment, the multi-player Bingo game may incorporatemethods for combining players wagering different amounts on the Bingogame to play the Bingo game together such that the probability ofplayers wagering higher amounts to winning the Bingo game is increased.In one method, players placing larger wagers on the Bingo game may beprovided with additional Bingo cards for the occurrence of the Bingogame. Alternatively, when the network computer 22 determines thegame-winning pattern or patterns for the occurrence of the Bingo game,the players may be assigned game-winning patterns having relativeprobabilities proportional to their wager amounts. For example, a playerwagering twice as much as another player may be assigned a game-winningpattern or set of patterns having approximately twice the odds ofwinning the Bingo game as the game-winning pattern or set of patternsassigned to the other player, such as providing the player with fewerspots to match, or with more game-winning patterns to match. Thusimplemented, in a given Bingo game, the player wagering more on theoccurrence of the Bingo game is provided with better odds of winning theaward for the Bingo game.

Interim Pattern Bingo Awards

In order to enhance the players' gaming experience while playing themulti-player Bingo game, the Bingo game may be configured withalternative methods for providing additional award payouts to theplayers, including players that are not the first to match thegame-winning pattern. In one embodiment, players may be awarded prizesfor matching predefined interim patterns on their Bingo cards havingassociated award amounts during the course of the Bingo game. Thepatterns may be termed “interim” because the patterns may be matchedduring the course of the game, and the patterns do not result in thetermination of the game when they are matched. The Bingo game terminatesonly when one or more players match the game-winning pattern. When aplayer matches an interim win pattern, the player may be awarded theprize amount corresponding to the matched interim pattern regardless ofwhether the player matches the game-winning pattern.

FIG. 28 illustrates one example of a set of interim patterns 920-938that may be applied in the Bingo game. As with the game-winningpatterns, the interim patterns are defined by one or more spots on theBingo card that may be matched during the Bingo game in order to receivethe corresponding interim win amount. The probability of matching agiven interim pattern is dependent on the number of spots to be matchedin the interim pattern, and the value of the interim win amounts may beselected so that the higher interim award amounts generally correspondto the interim patterns lesser probabilities of occurring. For example,matching the first interim pattern 920, which may consist of a singlespot and, consequently, a relatively high probability of being matchedby a player during an occurrence of the Bingo game, may result in aninterim pattern award amount of two credits, while matching the tenthinterim pattern 938 consisting of ten spots and having a relatively lowprobability of being matched, may result in a much larger interimpattern award amount of 1,024 credits. However, it is not necessary thata larger interim pattern award must be associated with a more complexinterim pattern than a smaller interim pattern award. Each interimpattern may be associated with any interim pattern award amount toachieve a desired payout rate for interim pattern wins.

After one or more players are declared the winner of an occurrence ofthe Bingo game and, if necessary, at least one winning player daubstheir Bingo card, the Bingo cards for each of the players may beevaluated by the corresponding gaming unit 20 to determine whether theplayer has matched any of the interim patterns. Referring back to FIG.11, the first player may have been declared the winner of the Bingo gameand may have daubed the Bingo card 802 to claim the Bingo win award of17 credits. The second player may not have matched the game-winningpattern in the same number of balls as the first player and,consequently, received no Bingo win award. In Bingo games whereindaubing may be required to claim a Bingo win award, players may also berequired to daub their Bingo cards in order to receive any interimpattern awards. Under the normal course of play, the players may daubtheir Bingo cards when prompted and receive any interim pattern awards.Where a potentially winning players sleeping through their opportunityat the Bingo win award may be foreclosed from later claiming the Bingowin award, those players may still be awarded interim pattern awards iftheir Bingo cards are daubed prior to the conclusion of the Bingo game.

In one embodiment, all of the numbers of the ball draw may be used todetermine whether a player has matched one or more interim patterns.Consequently, the Bingo cards 802, 822 may be evaluated based on thenumbers marked during the course of the ball draw. On the Bingo card802, the marked number “27” corresponds to the first interim pattern 920of FIG. 28 and entitles the first player to two credits as an interimpattern win award in addition to the seventeen credits for the Bingo winaward. The interim pattern win award may be reflected on the first Bingodisplay 800 by updating the pattern win amount 808 to show that twocredits were awarded, and updating the total win amount 810 to nineteencredits for the occurrence of the Bingo game. On the Bingo card 822,marked numbers “26” and “54” correspond to the second interim pattern922 of FIG. 28 and entitle the second player to four credits as aninterim pattern win award. The second player may win the interim patternwin award even though the Bingo card 822 may not match the game-winningpattern 840. As with the first Bingo display 800, the second Bingodisplay 820 may be updated to display four credits at the interimpattern win amount 828, and four credits at the total win amount 830.

In some implementations of multi-player Bingo games providing interimpattern awards, it may be desired to regulate the interim pattern awardpayout rate by limiting the number of balls from the ball draw that maybe used to evaluate the Bingo card for interim pattern matches. Bytruncating the ball draw to a predetermined maximum number of balls, thefrequency of matching the interim patterns and, consequently, theinterim pattern award payout rate may be reduced. For example, FIG. 29illustrates the outcome of the occurrence of the Bingo game of FIGS. 6-9with the ball draw truncated to the first thirty-five balls drawn forpurposes of evaluating the Bingo cards 802, 822 for matches of interimpatterns. After removing the marks 848 corresponding to numbers drawnafter the thirty-fifth number, the number “27” corresponding to a numberdrawn within the first thirty five numbers may still be marked and matchthe first interim pattern 920. The first Bingo display 800 may beupdated to illustrate two credits for the interim pattern win amount 808and seventeen credits for the total win amount 810.

On the second Bingo card 822, after removing the marks 848 correspondingto numbers drawn after the thirty-fifth number, the number “26”corresponding to a number drawn after the thirty-fifth number may beuncovered. As a result, the Bingo card 822 may no longer match thesecond interim pattern 922 as had been the case when the entire balldraw was considered in FIG. 11. Because neither the second interimpattern 922 nor any of the other interim patterns 920, 924-938 arematched on the Bingo card 822, the second player may not receive anyinterim pattern awards, and the interim pattern win amount 828 and totalwin amount 830 may reflect that the second player has received no Bingowin or interim pattern amounts for that occurrence of the Bingo game.

In multi-player Bingo games wherein a predetermined maximum number ofballs are used to evaluate interim pattern wins, alternatives exist forevaluating the interim pattern wins when a player or players match thegame-winning pattern in fewer than the predetermined maximum number ofballs. The interim pattern wins may be evaluated either by using thenumbers drawn to determine the winner of the Bingo game, thereby usingfewer than the predetermined maximum number of balls, or by drawingadditional numbers at the network computer 22 up to the predeterminedmaximum number of balls. The former alternative is illustrated in FIG.30. In this occurrence of the Bingo game, the first player may havematched the game-winning pattern on the twenty-fifth ball of the balldraw. The number “27” marked on the Bingo card 802 may match the firstinterim pattern 920 resulting in a two credit interim pattern award thatis reflected by the displays at the interim pattern win amount 808 andtotal win amount 810 as previously discussed. On the Bingo card 822, themarked numbers “11,” “34” and “74” match the third interim pattern 924resulting in an eight credit interim pattern award that is reflected bythe displays at the interim pattern win amount 828 and total win amount820.

The latter alternative for evaluating the interim pattern wins isillustrated in FIG. 31. Depending on the implemented one of the routines700, 750, 760, 770 or other routine for conducting the Bingo game, afterdeclaring the first player the winner of the Bingo game at thetwenty-fifth number, additional numbers up to the predetermined maximumnumber of balls (thirty-five in this example) may be drawn by thenetwork computer 22 if not previously drawn by the network computerduring the occurrence of the Bingo game, and displayed at the ball drawareas 812, 832. The gaming units 20 may evaluate the Bingo cards 802,822 with the additional numbers and add marks 848 at any additionalmatching numbers. After marking the Bingo cards 802, 822, the gamingunits 20 may evaluate the Bingo cards 802, 822 for interim patternmatches.

With the additional marks 848, both the first and the second players maymatch multiple of the interim patterns 920-938. On Bingo card 802, thenumber “27” matches the first interim pattern 920 and the numbers “2,”“9,” “17,” “49,” “66” and “67” match the sixth interim pattern 930,while on Bingo card 822, the numbers “26” and “54” match the secondinterim pattern 922 and the numbers “11,” “34” and “74” match the thirdinterim pattern 924. Depending on the configuration of the Bingo game,the players may be awarded either the sum of the interim pattern awards,or the greater of the interim pattern win awards. Consequently, thefirst player may receive either a sixty-six credit interim pattern awardor a sixty-four credit interim pattern award (shown in FIG. 31), and thesecond player may receive either a twelve credit award or an eightcredit award (shown in FIG. 31).

The chosen alternative for determining the interim pattern award wheremultiple interim patterns are matched may impact the Bingo game inseveral ways. Assuming that the same interim patterns and award amountsare used, awarding the highest interim pattern award instead of totalingthe interim pattern awards may reduce both the amount of the interimpattern awards won by the players and the payout rate for the interimpattern awards overall. Additionally, the probability that a player maybe awarded a given interim pattern award may be reduced in comparison tototaling the interim pattern award amounts by the probability that theplayer may also match an interim pattern with a higher interim patternaward amount in the same Bingo game. For example, the probability ofmatching the first interim pattern 920 in thirty-five or fewer numbersis approximately 2.14-to-1, while the probability of matching the secondinterim pattern in thirty-five or fewer numbers is approximately4.66-to-1. These are also the probabilities of winning the correspondinginterim pattern awards when the interim award amounts are totaled.However, the probability of winning the interim pattern award for thefirst interim pattern 920 may be reduced by the probability of alsomatching the second interim pattern 922, which in this example isapproximately 10.31-to-1 (i.e., the odds of matching three numbers outof thirty-five drawn from a field of seventy-five numbers). Theresulting probability is approximately 2.70-to-1 to match the firstinterim pattern 920 and not also match the second interim pattern 922.Of course, the probability of awarding the first interim pattern awardmay be further reduced by probabilities of also matching the remaininginterim patterns 924-938 in a given occurrence of the Bingo game.

Those skilled in the art will understand that the interim patterns maybe configured to achieve probabilities for paying out interim patternaward amounts according to specified payout rates. Where only the higherinterim pattern award amount may be paid, the probabilities of payingthe awards associated with the interim patterns may be altered byadjusting the level of interaction between the interim patterns (i.e.the amount of overlap between the interim patterns) to achieve thedesired probabilities. For example, the first interim pattern 920 andthe second interim pattern 922 do not overlap and, therefore, do nothave any spots or positions in common. As noted above, the odds of bothinterim patterns being matched is approximately 10.31-to-1. However, ifthe patterns are overlapped such that one of the spots of the secondinterim pattern 922 is located in the same square as the spot of thefirst interim pattern 920, the odds of matching both the first andsecond interim patterns 920, 922 increase to approximately 4.66-to-1,and the odds of paying the first interim pattern award increase toapproximately 3.95-to-1. The other interim patterns may be similarlymanipulated to adjust the probabilities for the interim patterns toachieve a desired interim pattern payout rate.

While a single set of interim patterns is illustrated in FIG. 28, it iscontemplated that multiple sets of interim patterns may be provided forthe Bingo game. The interim pattern sets may vary in terms of the numberof interim patterns in the sets, the configuration of the interimpatterns in the sets, the complexity of the interim patterns in thesets, the interim pattern award amounts available for matching interimpatterns in the sets, and the like. The gaming units 20 may beconfigured to randomly or sequentially select one of a plurality ofavailable interim pattern sets for use in a given occurrence of theBingo game. Alternatively, the players may be provided with the abilityto select one of the available interim pattern sets based on their ownpreferences. For example, several interim pattern sets havingapproximately the same overall interim pattern award payout rates may beprovided, but with the interim pattern sets paying out interim patternawards with varying frequencies. Some interim pattern sets may result inpaying out relatively small interim pattern awards relativelyfrequently, some interim pattern sets may result in paying outrelatively large interim pattern awards relatively infrequently, andsome interim pattern sets may result in paying out a combination oflarge and small interim pattern awards. The gaming units 20 may displaythe interim pattern sets and allow the players to select interim patternsets corresponding to their preferences in their gaming experience.

Alternatively, the interim pattern sets used for an occurrence of theBingo game may be determined based on the amount wagered by the players.In slots, the number of winning combinations and the maximum amount thatmay be won by the player is dependent on number of paylines played andthe amount wagered per payline. The maximum prizes may only be availablefor where the player wagers the maximum amount on the maximum number ofavailable paylines. Similarly in the multi-player Bingo game, theplayers may be able select one of a plurality of available interimpattern sets and select a wager amount to be applied to each interimpattern within the interim pattern sets. Where nine interim pattern setsare available, the player may be able to play the first interim patternset for one credit, play the second interim pattern set for two credits,and so on up to nine credits for the ninth interim pattern set. Thefirst interim pattern set costing the player only a one credit wager mayhave the lowest probability of paying out an interim pattern award andhave the lowest interim pattern award amounts available, while the ninthinterim pattern set may have the highest probability of paying out aninterim pattern award and have the highest interim pattern award amountsavailable. Additionally, the player may be able wager from one to fivetimes the credits required for a given interim pattern set.Consequently, in this example the player may be able to wager betweenone and forty-five credits per game in order to vary the odds ofreceiving an interim pattern award and of winning a larger interimpattern award based on their preferences for their gaming experience.

Multi-Level Award Amount Pattern Mapping

Where relatively few Bingo win and/or interim pattern award amounts maybe offered to the players of the multi-player Bingo game, it may berelatively simple to select a set of patterns to achieve a desiredprobability of paying out each award amount and a desired overall Bingoaward payout rate. Moreover, with relatively few Bingo patterns toevaluate, the players may be able to readily identify whether any of theBingo patterns are matched on their Bingo cards. As the number of awardamounts increases, it may become increasingly difficult to map the awardamounts to Bingo patterns on a standard Bingo card. As the number ofaward amounts increases, the amount of interaction between the Bingopatterns, and the corresponding impact on probabilities of matching theBingo patterns where only the highest award amount is paid out, mayincrease the difficulty of matching the probabilities of matching theBingo patterns to the desired probabilities of paying out the awardamounts. Moreover, the players may have more difficulty identifyingBingo pattern matches on their Bingo cards as the number of Bingopatterns increases.

The difficulty in matching Bingo patterns to a large number of awardamounts may be reduced by applying a multi-level mapping strategywherein most or all of the desired award amounts may be provided withoutthe necessity assigning distinct Bingo patterns to each award amount. Inone embodiment of a multi-level mapping strategy, the desired awardamounts may be divided into a plurality of subsets or pay groups, witheach subset or pay group containing one or more of the award amounts,and then assigning primary patterns to each of the pay groups andsecondary patterns to each of the award amounts within the pay groups.FIG. 32 is a flowchart of a multi-level Bingo pattern mapping routine950 that may be implemented to map the desired award amounts to Bingopatterns. The mapping strategy may be applied equally to award amountsfor Bingo game winners and for interim pattern matches. Referring toFIG. 32, the multi-level mapping routine 950 may begin at a block 952 atwhich the award amounts for the Bingo game and associated probabilitiesare determined. The award amounts and associated probabilities may bedetermined in any known manner for calculating paytables to achieve adesired award payout rate. Moreover, as an alternative to determiningthe award amounts and probabilities from scratch, the awards andprobabilities may be derived from known paytables used in other gamingdevices to achieve a desired payout rate.

After the award amounts and associated probabilities are determined, theaward amounts may be divided into a plurality of pay groups at block954. The award amounts may be divided into any desired number of paygroups, each containing any desired number of award amounts. Further,the pay groups may each have the same number of award amounts, or thenumber of award amounts may vary from pay group to pay group. Inimplementations of the multi-player Bingo games where only the highestaward amount may be awarded, the award amounts may be divided intomultiple groups such that no overlap exists in the award amounts betweenthe groups. For example, the first group may consist of the ten highestaward amounts, the second group may consist of the next seven highestaward amounts, the third group may consist of the next fourteen highestaward amounts, and so on. Consequently, the groups may be ordered byaward amount. This may be viewed as taking the entire list of possibleaward amounts, ordered by value, and breaking up the list into groups ofadjacent values. It may be preferred, but not required, for each groupto contain award amounts having similar magnitudes as other awardamounts in the group.

One example of a grouping of award amounts is illustrated in FIG. 33.The award amounts consist of the whole numbers between 1 and 100. In thepay group table 956, the award amounts may be separated into ten groupsof ten award amounts without overlapping the award amounts betweengroups. Each award amount may have an associated probability of beingawarded. The award amounts may be assigned any desired probability, andthe higher value award amounts need not have a lower probability ofbeing awarded than lower value award amounts. In short, the awardamounts may be assigned any necessary probabilities in order to achievethe desired award amount payout rate.

Once the award amounts are divided into pay groups, the odds of payingout one of the award amounts from each group may be calculated at block958. The odds for the group may be calculated based on the cumulativeodds for the award amounts within the group. For example, the awardamounts in pay group 1 of pay group table 956 may have the assigned oddsshown in Table 1:

TABLE 1 Award Amount Game Odds 1 15-to-1 2 5-to-1 3 150-to-1 4 150-to-15 10-to-1 6 700-to-1 7 700-to-1 8 700-to-1 9 750-to-1 10 25-to-1

The odds for the pay group are calculated by summing the odds of theindividual award amounts in the group. In the above example, thecalculated odds for pay group 1 are approximately 2.35-to-1 the one ofthe award amounts in group 1 may be paid out. Similar calculations maybe performed for each of the pay groups.

After calculating the pay group odds, the odds of paying out aparticular award amount from its pay group may be calculated at block960. The odds of paying out an award amount are the odds that once it isdetermined that an award may be paid out from a given pay group theparticular award amount will be the award amount paid out from the paygroup. Using the example from Table 1, the approximate odds of payingout the awards from pay group 1 are shown in Table 2:

TABLE 2 Award Pay Group Amount Odds 1 6.4-to-1 2 2.1-to-1 3 63.8-to-1 463.8-to-1 5 4.3-to-1 6 297.9-to-1 7 297.9-to-1 8 297.9-to-1 9 319.2-to-110 10.6-to-1

Based on these pay group odds for the award amounts in pay group 1, theodds that the 10 credit award will be paid out once it is determinedthat an award will be paid out of pay group 1 is approximately10.6-to-1.

After calculating the odds for the pay groups, and for the award amountswithin the pay groups, primary Bingo patterns may be assigned to the paygroups at block 962. In one embodiment, each of the pay groups may beassigned a primary Bingo pattern to be matched on the players' Bingocards 802, 822. One example of primary Bingo patterns 964-982corresponding to the pay groups of pay group table 956 is illustrated inFIG. 34. The primary Bingo patterns assigned to the pay groups may beconfigured so that the odds of matching the primary Bingo pattern duringthe Bingo game are approximately equal to the calculated odds of payingan award amount from the corresponding pay group. Where the awardamounts and pay groups relate to the Bingo game win awards, or tointerim pattern awards wherein the award amounts for multiple interimpattern matches may be summed, the odds for each primary Bingo patternsmay be considered independently of the other primary Bingo patterns.Conversely, where the award amounts and pay groups relate to the interimpattern awards where only the highest award amount may be paid out, theodds of the primary Bingo patterns may be adjusted based on the oddsthat the primary Bingo patterns corresponding to higher value pay groupsmay be matched during the same Bingo game in a similar manner aspreviously discussed.

Returning to FIG. 32, prior to, concurrently with or after assigning theprimary Bingo patterns to the pay groups, secondary patterns may beassigned to the award amounts within the groups at block 984. Thesecondary patterns may relate to the Bingo cards 802, 822 used by theplayers during the Bingo game, or may relate to a separate Bingo cardthat may or may not have the same configuration as the Bingo cards 802,822. Moreover, the secondary patterns may relate to any otherconfiguration or group of number, symbols or other indicia wherepatterns may be defined and matched using the numbers selected for theball draw of the Bingo game. In one embodiment, the secondary patternsmay relate to the Bingo cards 802, 822 used by the players, andrepresent additional patterns that may be matched on the cards 802, 822to determine an award amount if the corresponding primary Bingo patternfor the pay group is matched on the Bingo card 802, 822. In oneapproach, the first four columns of the Bingo card may be used for theprimary Bingo patterns for the pay groups, and the last column may beused for the secondary patterns for that award amounts within thegroups.

In another embodiment, each player may be provided with a secondary cardin addition to the Bingo card 802, 822 used to play the Bingo game andto match the primary Bingo patterns. In one alternative, each player mayreceive an additional card having two rows and five columns, with eachof the columns corresponding to one of the columns of the player's Bingocard 802, 822. FIG. 35 corresponds to the occurrence of the Bingo gamepreviously illustrated in FIG. 29, and showing first and second Bingodisplays 800, 820 including secondary Bingo cards 986, 988,respectively, received by each player for evaluating the secondarypatterns if one or more of the primary Bingo patterns are matched on theBingo cards 802, 822. As discussed, the secondary Bingo cards 986, 988include a two row by five column array of numbers. The numbers of thesecondary Bingo cards 986, 988 may be drawn from the same ranges ofnumbers as the primary Bingo cards 802, 822 (i.e., B=1 to 15, I=16 to30, N=31 to 45, G=46 to 60 and O=61 to 75), and may be selected suchthat the numbers of the secondary Bingo cards 986, 988 may not repeatnumbers on the primary Bingo cards 802, 822, respectively. However,numbers may be repeated between the primary Bingo cards 802, 822 and thesecondary Bingo cards 986, 988 if desired, and the numbers in thecolumns of the secondary Bingo cards 986, 988 need not be restricted tobeing selected from any particular ranges as is the case with theprimary Bingo cards 802, 822. While the Bingo cards are illustratedherein as a 5×5 card and a separate 2×5 card, they may be considered asa single 7×5 card with the first five rows being used to play the Bingogame and the last two rows being evaluated in the event that certainpredefined patterns are matched in the first five rows. Moreover, theprimary Bingo cards 802, 822 and secondary Bingo cards 986, 988 need notbe two-dimensional matrices of game indicia, and may be any size or formof array of game indicia in which the matched game indicia of the arraymay form patterns that may be compared to predetermined patterns, andmay be separate arrays or portions of the same array.

In the embodiment wherein the secondary Bingo cards 986, 988 are used toevaluate the secondary patterns, it follows that the secondary patternsmay be similarly defined within two rows and five columns. FIG. 36illustrates a secondary pattern set 1000 containing secondary patterns1002-1018 corresponding to the 2 credit through 10 credit award amountsof pay group 1 of FIG. 33, and a secondary pattern set 1020 containingsecondary patterns 1022-1038 corresponding to the 12 credit through 20credit award amounts of pay group 1 of FIG. 33. Similar secondarypatterns sets may be assigned for remaining pay groups 3-10. The varioussecondary pattern sets may or may not use the same secondary patterns.Even where the same secondary patterns are used for all pay groups, theodds within the groups may still be varied based on the particularpatterns and the number of patterns assigned to each award amount withina given group. In this embodiment, when a primary Bingo patterns 964-982is matched on the primary Bingo cards 802, 822, the player may be paidthe lowest award amount in the pay group in the event that none of thesecondary patterns for the pay group are matched on the secondary Bingocard 802, 822. Consequently, it may not be necessary to assign asecondary pattern to the lowest value award amounts. However, asecondary pattern may be assigned to the lowest value award amounts, andthe player may not receive an award if no secondary pattern is matchedafter matching the primary Bingo pattern.

Referring back to FIG. 35, the award amounts in pay group table 956 mayrepresent interim pattern award amounts, the primary and secondary Bingocards 802, 822, 986, 988 may be used to determine the award amount forany interim pattern wins. Of course, the award amounts may alternativelyrelate to Bingo game win awards, and the primary and secondary patternsmay be evaluated to determine the amounts of Bingo win awards. Thesecondary Bingo cards 986, 988 may be evaluated and marked by thenetwork computer 22 and/or the gaming units 20 in a similar manner asdiscussed for the primary Bingo cards 802, 822. Because one of theprimary Bingo patterns must be matched in order to receive an interimpattern award, the gaming units 20 may be configured to display thesecondary Bingo cards 986, 988 only after at least one of the primaryBingo patterns may be matched on the primary Bingo cards 802, 822.Alternatively, the secondary Bingo cards 986, 988 may be displayed atall times. As discussed above, a player may be required to daub theirBingo cards in order to claim any interim pattern wins.

Depending on the configuration for determining interim pattern awards(entire ball draw, maximum number of balls, predetermined number ofballs), the secondary Bingo cards 986, 988 may be marked based on thesame ball draw or portion thereof as is used for the primary Bingocards, 802, 822. For the first player, on the primary Bingo card 802,the marked number “27” corresponds to the first primary Bingo pattern964 of FIG. 34 for pay group 1, and the marked numbers “6” and “10”correspond to the second primary Bingo pattern 966 of FIG. 34 for paygroup 2. As discussed previously, players may be awarded either the sumof the interim pattern awards when multiple interim patterns arematched, or only the highest award amount, depending on theconfiguration of the Bingo game. Where only the highest award amount maybe awarded, the first player may receive one of the award amounts in paygroup 2 since all the award amounts in pay group 2 are higher than theaward amounts in pay group 1. On the secondary Bingo card 986, themarked numbers do not match any of secondary patterns 1022-1038 ofsecondary pattern set 1020. Consequently, the first player may receiveeleven credits as an interim pattern win award as the default awardamount for pay group 2, in addition to the seventeen credits for theBingo win award.

On the primary Bingo card 822, the marked numbers “11” and “12”correspond to the second primary Bingo pattern 966 of FIG. 34 for paygroup 2. On the secondary Bingo card 988, the marked numbers “5” and “8”correspond to the second secondary pattern 1024 of FIG. 36 and entitlethe second player to thirteen credits as an interim pattern win.

Multi-level pattern mapping is not limited to two levels as illustratedherein. Any number of levels may be used depending on the number ofpotential award amounts available in a paytable to which the patternsare to be mapped. Therefore, groups may further include subgroups, eachof which may include further subgroups or multiple award amounts. Forexample, in addition to a 5×5 primary Bingo card and a 2×5 secondaryBingo card, the Bingo game may further include a 2×2 or 3×3 interimpattern, with patterns on the 5×5 Bingo game corresponding to groups ofaward amounts, patterns on the 2×5 card corresponding to subgroups ofaward amounts under the groups, and the 2×2 or 3×3 cards correspondingto particular award amounts within the subgroups. Those skilled in theart will understand that any card configuration and number of levels maybe used to implement interim pattern wins in a Bingo game.

Moreover, alternatives exist to assigning multiple patterns at eachlevel. In one alternative embodiment, elements within a level may bedistinguished on the basis of the number of balls drawn before aparticular pattern may be matched on a Bingo card. For example, insteadof assigning distinct primary Bingo patterns to each pay group, a singleprimary Bingo pattern may be assigned that applies to all the paygroups. When the primary Bingo pattern is matched on the primary Bingocard, the pay group from which to select the award amount may bedetermined based on the number of balls required to match the primaryBingo pattern. Depending on the assigned primary Bingo pattern, matchingthe primary Bingo pattern in ten or fewer balls may correspond to thetenth pay group, matching in fifteen or fewer balls may correspond tothe ninth pay group, and so on. The numbers of balls may be selectedsuch that the odds of matching the primary Bingo pattern within aparticular number of balls may be approximately equal to the odds thatan award may be paid out from a given pay group. Once the pay group isdetermined based on the number of drawn balls, the secondary patternsfor the pay group may be evaluated in the manner described above.Alternatively, primary Bingo patterns may be assigned to each pay groupas described above, with the award amount within the pay group beingdetermined by the number of balls required to match the primary Bingopattern for the pay group. Another approach may have the award amountwithin a pay group selected based on the number of additional numbermatches on the primary Bingo card in addition to the primary Bingopattern. Further, if a single set of primary Bingo patterns (i.e. one ormore patterns) is used and the award amount is based on the number ofballs drawn to match one of the primary Bingo patterns, the primaryBingo patterns may also be the game-winning patterns.

Additional embodiments are contemplated for mapping award amounts topatterns in a Bingo game. In one embodiment, an award amount within apay group may be selected by other random selection mechanisms, such asby a simulated wheel spin where the wheel stop positions correspond tothe award amounts within the pay group. The wheel spin may animateconcurrently with the presentation of the marking of the numbers on theplayers' Bingo cards. In another embodiment, which may be implemented ina Bonanza Bingo game, an award amount may be determined based on asecondary condition associated with the Bingo card received by theplayer. One such method may use the occurrence of a pseudo-randomcondition associated with the Bingo card to determine an award amountwithin a pay group. For example, a player receiving a blue card mayreceive the highest award amount or pay group, a red card may receivethe next highest award amount or pay group, and a white card may receivethe lowest award amount or pay group. If the player matches a primaryBingo pattern for one of the pay groups, the card color may determinewhich award amount may be selected from the matched pay group. Inaddition to, or instead of, card color, other predefined conditions maydetermine the award amount selection, such as having certain numbers ortypes of numbers appearing on the player's Bingo card.

In a further alternative, a specific pay structure may be associatedwith each Bingo card. Each primary pattern may have an award amount, butthe award amounts may be different for different players. The game mayinclude several predefined sets of awards, with each having an awardassociated with each winning Bingo pattern. When the player receives theBingo card, the player may also receive a selection of which award setwill apply to any Bingo or interim pattern wins for the Bingo game

As a still further alternative embodiment, sets of award amounts maycontain one award amount for each of the pay groups such that the firstset contains the highest award amounts for each pay group, the secondset contains the next highest award amounts for each pay group, and soon. If one of the primary Bingo patterns is matched within a certainnumber of balls, the award amount from the first set may be awarded. Asadditional numbers are required to match the primary Bingo pattern, theset selection may progressively shift to those sets containing the loweraward amounts. In yet another embodiment, states, such as colors, may beassigned to the balls drawn or to the spots on the Bingo cards. Theaward amount selection may be based on the combination of states of thecovered numbers. For example, matched patterns wherein all of thematched balls or spots are the same color may correspond to higher awardamounts than matched patterns consisting of multiple colors.

Alternative Displays of Bingo Game Outcomes

As previously discussed, players may find the display of other games,such as slot machines, video poker, video blackjack, video Keno and thelike, to be more appealing than the display of Bingo games. Moreover, asthe number of award amounts and, correspondingly the number of Bingopatterns, offered in a Bingo game increases, it may become moredifficult for players to discern winning outcomes (i.e. pattern matches)in a Bingo game than, for example, a slot machine offering a comparablenumber of award amounts based on matching reel symbols along a pluralityof paylines. The Bingo player's gaming experience may be enhanced byproviding an alternate display of the outcome of the Bingo gamedetermined based on a ball draw and the player's Bingo card in a formatthat may be preferential to the player or allow the player to morereadily identify winning outcomes of the Bingo game. In one alternative,the outcome determined by the Bingo game may be presented to the playerswith the display simulating the appearance of a traditional Class IIIgame, such as electro-mechanical or video slots, video poker, videoblackjack, video Keno and the like.

It may be emphasized that the slot reels or other alternate outcomedisplays used to display the outcome determined by the Bingo game maynot themselves determine the outcome of the Bingo game. The Bingo gamingsystem is conducting a Bingo game that may still be played withoutproviding the supplemental outcome display offered by such alternateoutcome displays. The ball draw leads to covered numbers, characters orother game indicia on the Bingo card. Achieving coverage of thepredetermined game-winning pattern leads to a Bingo win award. Thegame-winning patterns and/or interim patterns may be chosen to achievedesired Bingo game dynamics. However, the targeted dynamics (i.e. theBingo win award values, the relative frequency of occurrence of theawards, the Bingo win and interim pattern payout rates, and the like)may be selected so as to closely mirror the dynamics that a desiredalternate outcome display, such as a particular slot machine or othercasino game, might produce. The correspondence between the Bingo gamedynamics and the casino game dynamics may allow the designer to map theBingo game awards to the display of the casino game via the alternateoutcome display, thereby providing an alternative and potentially moreuser-appealing display of the Bingo outcome.

In one embodiment, an existing casino game may be used for the alternateoutcome display, with the award amounts and the paytable for the casinogame being used to configure the Bingo game dynamics. For example, themulti-player Bingo game may include an alternate outcome displaysimulating the appearance of a traditional slot machine, with interimpatterns being mapped to the award amounts of the slot machine paytableto achieve approximately the same payout rate for the interim patternawards as for the slot machine. Where relatively few award amounts areoffered in the paytable for the slot machine, a set of interim patterns,such as, for example, the patterns 920-938 of FIG. 28, may be mapped tothe award amounts, with the interim patterns having approximately thesame odds of being matched on a player's Bingo card as the odds of theslot machine paying out the corresponding award amount.

The alternate outcome display may be provided at the gaming units 20 inaddition to the display of the Bingo game discussed above. For the aboveexample, the outcome of the Bingo game may be displayed at the firstdisplay device 68 of the gaming unit 20, and the alternate outcomedisplay may be provided at the second display device 70, perhaps as anelectro-mechanical or video display of a set of slot reels. FIG. 37 isan exemplary display 450 that may be shown on the display unit 70 as analternate outcome display. Referring to FIG. 37, the display 450 mayinclude video images 452 of a plurality of slot machine reels, each ofthe reels having a plurality of reel symbols 454 associated therewith.Although the display 450 shows five reel images 452, each of which mayhave three reel symbols 454 that are visible at a time, other reelconfigurations could be utilized.

To allow the player to control the play of the Bingo game, a pluralityof player-selectable buttons may be displayed that may map wageringselections for a slot machine to wagers by the players on the Bingogame. The buttons may include a “Cash Out” button 456, a “See Pays”button 458, a plurality of payline-selection buttons 460 each of whichallows the player to select a different number of paylines prior to“spinning” the reels, a plurality of bet-selection buttons 462 each ofwhich allows a player to specify a wager amount for each paylineselected, a “Spin” button 464, and a “Max Bet” button 466 to allow aplayer to make the maximum wager allowable.

If the player requests payout information, such as by activating the“See Pays” button 458, the gaming unit 20 may cause one or morepaytables to be displayed on the display unit 70. One example of apaytable 510 for a slot machine with multiple paylines is illustrated inFIG. 38. The paytable 510 may correspond to a five reel slot machinehaving three stop positions per reel such that 15 symbols are displayedas shown in FIG. 37. The paytable 510 includes nine paylines that may beplayed by the player based on selections made using buttons 460. FIG. 39illustrates each of the individual paylines 511-519 making up thepaytable 510 for the purpose of clarity. When the reels are spun andstop, each of the paylines 511-519 on which the player wagers isevaluated to determine whether the symbols on the reels match any of thepredefined combination of reel symbols for which a prize is awarded.More than one payline may include a winning combination of reel symbols,and the award amounts for multiple paylines may be added to determine atotal award amount for the reel spin.

Each award amount in the slot machine paytable may correspond to one ormore combinations of reel stop positions that when hit by the slotmachine result in the payout of the associated award amount. The mappingof the interim patterns to the slot machine paytable may further includemapping the interim patterns to the combination or combinations of reelstop positions corresponding to the award amount. For each interimpattern and corresponding award amount, the gaming unit 20 may store theavailable combination or combinations of reel stop positions to bedisplayed at the alternate outcome display to represent the outcome ofthe Bingo game. When a given interim pattern is matched on the Bingocard, the gaming unit 20 may randomly or sequentially select one of theavailable combinations of reel stop positions corresponding to the awardamount, and cause the alternate outcome display to display the slotreels in the appropriate positions to display a slot machine outcomethat if determined by a slot machine engine would result in the payoutof the award amount.

During the execution of the multi-player Bingo game routines 700, 750,760, 770, of FIGS. 5A and 5B, 16A and 16B, 17A and 17B, and 18A and 18B,respectively, or other routines for conducting the Bingo game, thegaming unit 20 may control the alternate outcome display to achieve arealistic simulation of the casino game used to display the outcome ofthe Bingo game. At blocks 704 and 706, once two or more players enrollin the occurrence of the Bingo game, thereby ensuring that the Bingogame may be played, the gaming unit 20 may cause the display device 70to display an animated graphic or other display simulating theinitiation of the casino game. For example, if a slot machine is beingsimulated, the gaming unit 20 may cause the display device 70 to startthe electro-mechanical or video reels spinning as if a player had hit a“Spin” button or pulled the arm of a slot machine. For video card games,the display device 70 may display a graphic of a deck of cards beingshuffled or of hands being dealt face down by a dealer. Still further,for video Keno games, the display device 70 may display a graphic of ablower-type ball draw mechanism tumbling the Keno balls.

The animated display may continue until the Bingo game winner or winnersare determined and the Bingo cards are evaluated for interim patternsand corresponding award amounts. After the awards are determined atblock 730, in addition to displaying the Bingo game outcome and awardgraphics at the display device 68 at block 732, the gaming device 20 mayalso determine and display at the display device 70 an alternate outcomedisplay corresponding to the Bingo game outcome. Using the outcome ofthe Bingo game and corresponding award amount, the gaming unit 20 mayselect one of the available alternate outcome displays for the outcomeand award amount, and cause the display device 70 to display theselected outcome display. For a slot machine, the gaming unit 20 maycause the display device 70 to stop the reels at the correspondingcombination of reel stop positions. Similarly, for video card games, thedisplay device 70 may display player and/or dealer hands that wouldresult in the payout of the award amount by the corresponding video cardgame.

While a single level of Bingo patterns may be appropriate to map apaytable for a casino game having a relative small number of awardamounts, the multi-level pattern mapping strategy discussed above may benecessary to configure the Bingo game dynamics to correspond to a casinogame desired to be used as an alternate outcome display having a largenumber of available award amounts. In one example of a slot machinehaving five reels with three symbols per reel being displayed, andplayers being able to wager on up to nine paylines, the paytable maycontain hundreds of available award amounts. In this example, thirtyfour distinct award amounts may be available when only one payline isplayed, while 351 distinct award amounts may be available when all ninepaylines are played with the award amounts ranging from two to 4,727credits.

In one embodiment, Bingo patterns for the Bingo game may be mapped tothe paytable for the slot machine using three levels of mapping. At thefirst level, the paytable may be divided into groups of award amountscorresponding to the number of paylines being played by a player. In theabove example, the one line group may include thirty-four distinct awardamounts, the nine line group may include 351 distinct award amounts, andthe groups corresponding to playing two through eight lines may eachinclude the corresponding distinct award amounts available in thepaytable. Once the award amounts are divided into groups based on thenumber of lines played, primary and secondary patterns may be assignedfor the award amounts in each group according to the multi-level patternstrategy discussed above. It should be noted that in this example ofmulti-level pattern mapping, the first level groups may not havecorresponding patterns mapped thereto for selecting between the groups.Instead, the first level groups will be selected by the players based onthe number of paylines the players elect to play in the Bingo game.

Using the nine payline group as a further example, the available awardamounts may be divided into non-overlapping pay groups as shown in paygroup table 1050 of FIG. 40. With extremely large numbers of awardamounts, it may be desirable to select a subset of the most prevalentaward amounts, or select a subset based on other criteria. In thisexample, the 149 most prevalent award amounts may have been selected anddivided into the sixteen non-overlapping groups of pay group table 1050.Once the groups are determined, the pay group odds and the odds for theaward amounts within the pay groups may be calculated in the mannerdescribed above.

After the odds are calculated for the pay groups and the awards, primarypatterns may be assigned to the pay groups and secondary patterns may beassigned to the award amounts within the pay groups corresponding to thecalculated odds in the manner described above. An example of a set ofprimary patterns 1052-1082 for pay groups 1-16 is shown in FIG. 41.Where only the highest award amount may be paid for multiple patternmatches, the odds of paying out an award from each of the pay groups areshown in Table 3:

TABLE 3 Primary Odds of Pattern Payout 1 11,740-to-1 2 13,602-to-1 34,766-to-1 4 909-to-1 5 2,142-to-1 6 1,979-to-1 7 1,798-to-1 8 139-to-19 282-to-1 10 172-to-1 11 71-to-1 12 24-to-1 13 67-to-1 14 33-to-1 1511-to-1 16 2.9-to-1

The primary patterns may be configured so that the odds of matching theprimary patterns may be approximately equal to the calculated odds ofpaying out an award amount from the corresponding pay groups.

As with the example above, the secondary patterns for the award amountsmay correspond to the secondary Bingo cards 986, 988 discussed above.FIG. 42 illustrates a first secondary pattern set 1100 of secondarypatterns 1102-1116 that may be assigned to the award amounts in paygroup 1, and the second secondary pattern set 1120 of secondary patterns1122-1138 that may be assigned to the award amounts in pay group 1.Similar secondary pattern sets may be assigned to the remaining paygroups 3-16. The odds of matching the secondary patterns may beapproximately equal to the calculated odds of paying out a particularaward amount from the pay group when the corresponding primary patternis matched on a player's Bingo card. In each pay group, a secondarypattern may not be assigned to the lowest award amount in a pay groupwhere the lowest award amount may be paid out if none of the secondarypatterns of the pay group are matched.

As previously discussed, each award amount from the paytable maycorrespond to one or more outcomes of the casino game being simulated atthe alternate outcome display. Several example reel stop positions1150-1156 corresponding to award amounts from pay group 1 areillustrated in FIG. 43, and may be stored at gaming units 20 for displayat the alternate outcome display. As discussed above, the example slotmachine may include five reels with three symbols of each reel thatwould be generated by slot machine engine if the slot machine were beingpaid. Moreover, up to nine paylines may be used to evaluate combinationsof symbols. The reel stop positions 1150, in which five “7's” arematched on payline 2 and payline 3, correspond to the 900 credit awardamount of in pay group 1. When a player matches primary pattern 1052 ofFIG. 41 on the primary Bingo card, and does not match any of thesecondary patterns 1102-1116 of secondary pattern set 1100 of FIG. 42 onthe secondary Bingo card, the player may be awarded 900 credits. Thegaming unit 20 selects the reel stop positions 1150 from the pool ofslot machine outcomes, and causes the second display device 70 to stopthe slot reels at the reel stop positions 1150 to simulate theappearance of a slot machine, and to display the outcome determined inthe Bingo game.

The reel stop positions 1152, 1154 may both correspond to a 902 creditaward amount, and both may be stored at the gaming units 20 in the poolof available slot machine outcomes. The cherry may be a wild card symbolcombinable with other symbols to match the predetermined combination ofsymbols, or may pay an award of two credits even if no combinations arematched. Consequently, the cherry in the top row may complete the five“7's” for payline 2, and result in additional two credit awards onpaylines 5 and 4, respectively, giving a total award of 902 credits.When a player matches primary pattern 1052 of FIG. 41 on the primaryBingo card, and also matches the secondary pattern 1116 of secondarypattern set 1100 of FIG. 42 on the secondary Bingo card, the player maybe awarded 902 credits, and the gaming unit 20 may randomly orsequentially select one of the reel stop positions 1152, 1154 fordisplay at the second display device 70. The reel stop positions 1156may correspond to a 906 credit award amount, with the wild card cherryresulting in two credit awards on each of pay lines 1, 4 and 5. When aplayer matches primary pattern 1052 of FIG. 41 on the primary Bingocard, and also matches the secondary pattern 1114 of secondary patternset 1100 of FIG. 42 on the secondary Bingo card, the player may beawarded 906 credits, and the gaming unit 20 may select the reel stoppositions 1156 for display at the second display device 70. If none ofthe primary patterns 1052-1080 are matched on the primary Bingo card,regardless of whether any secondary patterns for any pay groups arematched on the secondary Bingo card, no credits are awarded to theplayer and the gaming unit 20 may randomly or sequentially select anoutcome from a pool of non-winning reel stop positions for display atthe second display device 70. Alternatively, the gaming unit 20 may beconfigured in any appropriate manner for generating non-winning reelstop positions. For example, the gaming unit 20 may include an algorithmfor randomly generating reel stop positions representative of gameoutcomes. When the gaming unit 20 determines that the player does notreceive awards for the occurrence of the game, the algorithm may beexecuted to generate reel stop positions, with the generated reel stoppositions being rejected and discarded until a non-winning set of reelstop positions is generated and displayed.

While the embodiment of an alternate outcome display illustrated anddiscussed herein may simulate the appearance of a slot machine, thoseskilled in the art will understand that other casino games may besimulated in an alternate outcome display, with the award amounts forthe casino game's paytable being mapped to single or multiple levels ofBingo patterns. For example, the alternate outcome display may simulatethe appearance of a video poker machine. The award amounts for the videopoker machines may correspond to one or more poker hands. Whenparticular Bingo patterns are matched by a player in an occurrence ofthe Bingo game resulting in the payout of an award amount, the gamingunit 20 may select an available poker hand corresponding to the awardamount for display at the display device 70. Other casino games may besimilarly mapped and simulated by the alternate outcome display in asimilar manner. Moreover, the gaming units 20 may be programmed with aplurality of alternate outcome displays corresponding to a plurality ofcasino games, with the player being provided with the opportunity toselect a desired one of the available alternate outcome displays.

Determining Game-Winning Patterns

In the simplest embodiment, the network computer 22 may use the samegame-winning pattern or patterns for each occurrence of the Bingo game,or randomly or sequentially select from a pool of game-winning patterns,with each player playing to match the same game-winning pattern orpatterns. In an alternative embodiment, players may be assigned agame-winning pattern corresponding to the amount of the player's wager.For the same wager, the game-winning pattern may have the sameprobability of occurring. For different wager amounts, the greater thewager, the greater the probability of a game-winning pattern assigned tothe player being matched in fewer numbers than for the game-winningpatterns assigned to players placing smaller wagers.

In some configurations of the Bingo game, the number of Bingo cardsbeing played in an occurrence of the Bingo game, due to either varyingnumbers of players, varying numbers of Bingo cards being played by theplayers, or both, may impact the payout rate for interim pattern awards.For a given game-winning pattern, as more Bingo cards are being playedin the Bingo game, the average number of balls required for one playerto match the game-winning pattern decreases. Where interim patternawards are evaluated based on a predetermined maximum number of ballsfrom the ball draw, and fewer if the game-winning pattern is matched infewer than the predetermined maximum number of balls, this may result ininterim pattern win truncation whereby fewer interim pattern awards arepaid out due to the increased number of Bingo games ending when fewerthan the predetermined maximum number of balls have been drawn. In orderto ensure that the desired interim pattern award payout rate isachieved, the game-winning pattern or patterns may be adjusted based onthe number of Bingo cards enrolled in the Bingo game to ensure that thedistribution of Bingo game wins in fewer than the predetermined numberof balls is approximately the same regardless of the number of Bingocards.

In one embodiment, the multi-player Bingo game may minimize the impactof varying numbers of Bingo cards on the payout rate for interim patternawards by using different game-winning patterns depending on the numberof Bingo cards enrolled in the occurrence of the Bingo game to achieve aconsistent statistical distribution of the number of balls to Bingo. Aspreviously discussed, after the players are enrolled for the occurrenceof the Bingo game, the network computer 22 may determine thegame-winning pattern for the occurrence of the Bingo game at the block712 of routine 700.

To achieve a consistent distribution, for each number of Bingo cardsthat may be enrolled in an occurrence of the Bingo game, parameters maybe established for randomly determining the game-winning pattern orpatterns that may guarantee a consistent distribution of the number ofballs to Bingo. The parameters may include, among other criteria, thenumber of spots to be covered in one or more game-winning pattern andthe number of spots that may be shared between multiple game-winningpatterns. One example of parameters for determining the game-winningpatterns to achieve a uniform number of balls to Bingo distribution isillustrated in Table 4, where the predetermined maximum number of ballsused to evaluate interim pattern wins is thirty-five:

TABLE 4 First Game- Second Game- Number of Winning Winning Number ofBingo Cards Pattern Spots Pattern Spots Shared Spots 2 7 7 5 3 7 8 6 4 88 5 5 8 9 0 6 8 11 0 7 8 0 0 8 9 9 6 9 9 10 0 10 9 10 0 11 9 10 8 12 911 6 13 9 11 8 14 9 12 9 15 9 0 0

As illustrated in Table 4, this method may include the use of one ormore patterns for a given number of Bingo cards, as well as patternshaving different specified numbers of spots to be covered. Moreover,given a specified number of game-winning patterns, the number of spotsper pattern and number of shared spots between the patterns for a givennumber of Bingo cards, a plurality of pattern combinations fitting thecriteria may be available for use in a given occurrence of the Bingogame. FIG. 44 illustrates one example of game-winning pattern sets1160-1186 that may be generated by the network computer 22 satisfyingthe parameters of Table 4. It will be readily apparent to those skilledin the art that many other game-winning pattern sets may be generatedthat satisfy the parameters of Table 4. However, for a given number ofBingo cards, each pattern set generated satisfying the designatedparameters, such as the parameters of Table 4, will result in the samedistribution of the number of balls to Bingo.

As can be seen in chart 1188 of FIG. 45 and the chart 1190 of FIG. 46,the probability distributions for the number of balls to Bingo for eachof the number of Bingo cards listed in Table 4 using game-winningpatterns conforming to the parameters specified in Table 4 isessentially uniform for game-winning patterns being matched in less thanthirty-five balls. Because the probability distributions for matchinggame-winning patterns in fewer than thirty-five numbers is uniform, thepayout rate for the interim pattern wins should be approximately thesame regardless of the number of Bingo cards being played in the Bingogame.

The network computer 22 may be configured to select any one of aplurality of available combinations of game-winning patterns fitting thecriteria for the number of enrolled Bingo cards, such as by executing analgorithm for randomly determining a set of patterns satisfying thecriteria, randomly or sequentially selecting pattern sets from a storedpool of predetermined patterns satisfying the criteria, of any othermethod for selecting a set of patterns matching the criteria for thecorresponding number of players. Moreover, it is contemplated that thelocations of the spots in the game-winning patterns may also beselected, either during the Bingo game or when the game-winning patternsets are determined prior to the Bingo game, so that any interaction ofthe game-winning patterns and the interim win patterns may notsignificantly alter the interim pattern award payout rate.

While the illustrated example relates to achieving a uniformdistribution below thirty-five numbers, those skilled in the art willunderstand that the parameters may be varied to achieve uniformprobability distributions for predetermined maximum numbers of ballsgreater than or less than thirty-five. Moreover, a similar methodologymay be used to manipulate the probability distributions in other ways,such as to achieve a uniform average number of balls to Bingo regardlessof the number of Bingo cards being played. In another embodiment, thegame-winning patterns may be selected based on the number of Bingo cardsenrolled in the game such that the average number of balls drawn tomatch the game-winning pattern or patterns is approximately equalregardless of the number of Bingo cards enrolled in the Bingo game.Consequently, the fewer the number of Bingo cards enrolled in the Bingogame, the simpler the game-winning pattern (i.e. fewer balls to bematched), and the greater the number of Bingo cards, the more complexthe game-winning pattern (i.e. more balls to be matched). As withvarying the game-winning patterns to match a desired distribution ofballs to Bingo less than or equal to the maximum number of balls used todetermine interim pattern awards, the game-winning patterns may variedin terms of the number of balls or symbols in the pattern, the number ofgame-winning patterns used for a given number of Bingo cards, the numberof spots shared between multiple game-winning patterns, and the like asmay be necessary to achieve the desired distribution of the number ofballs to Bingo.

Multi-Player Bingo with Progressive Jackpots

As previously discussed, the multi-player Bingo game may be implementedwith an additional progressive jackpot that may be fully or partiallyawarded to a player based on the player matching a predetermined patternon the player's Bingo card, perhaps within a predetermined maximumnumber of drawn numbers. In current implementations, progressivejackpots may be funded by diverting a portion of each player's wager onthe base wagering game, such as 2% of each wager, to the progressivejackpot pool. Moreover, in some implementations, only player's makingthe maximum wager on an occurrence of the base wagering game may beeligible to win the progressive jackpot, while all wagers on the basewagering game, including wagers that do not qualify for the player to beeligible to win the progressive jackpot, have a portion diverted to theprogressive jackpot pool. However, it may be desirable to fund aprogressive jackpot pool using only the wagers of the players qualifyingor electing to have an opportunity to win the progressive jackpot.

FIG. 47 is a flowchart of a player enrollment routine 1200 for amulti-player Bingo game wherein a wager or fee for an opportunity to wina progressive jackpot may be automatically deducted from a player'scredits when the player wagers at least a minimum wager amount on theoccurrence of the Bingo game. The player enrollment routine 1200 maybegin at a block 1202 wherein a player may deposit a medium of currencyin a currency-accepting mechanism of one of the gaming units 20, such asthe coin acceptor 52, bill acceptor 54, ticket reader 56, card reader 58or other mechanism for receiving currency or other media having orrepresenting value that may be converted into credits for playing awagering game such as the multi-player Bingo game. When thecurrency-accepting mechanism detects the deposit of the medium ofcurrency therein, the controller 100 may, in response to the detectionof the medium of currency at the currency-accepting mechanism, convertthe medium of currency into a corresponding amount of credits availablefor the player to wager on the gaming unit 20, store the amount ofavailable credit at the memory 102, and display the amount of availablecredit to the player, such as at one or both of the displays 68, 70. Itshould be noted that if the player previously deposited currency in thegaming unit 20 and has credits remaining after wagering on one or moreoccurrences of the multi-player Bingo game, the player enrollmentroutine 1200 may proceed without the need for the player to depositadditional currency at block 1202.

Once currency is deposited by the player in the gaming unit 20 andconverted into credits for playing the multi-player Bingo game, controlmay pass to a block 1204 wherein the player may input a wager for theoccurrence of the Bingo game at the control panel 66 or other inputdevice of the gaming unit 20. The player may be given the opportunity towager varying amounts of credits on an occurrence of the Bingo game. Forexample, the player may be permitted to wager any amount of credits froma minimum of one credit to a predetermined maximum number of credits. Asdiscussed above, the amount of credits wagered on an occurrence of theBingo game may correspondingly impact the player's probability ofwinning and/or the amount of any prize awarded to the player during theBingo game. Consequently, a player wagering twice the number of creditsas another player be twice as likely to win the Bingo, and/or mayreceive double the prize amount for winning the occurrence of the Bingogame.

Moreover, depending on the implementation of the Bingo game and anassociated alternate outcome display to which the Bingo game may bemapped, the interim patterns available for the player to match in orderto win interim pattern awards may vary based on the amount wagered onthe occurrence of the Bingo game. For example, for the slot reelsdisplay 450 illustrated in FIGS. 37-39 and discussed in the accompanyingtext, the associated slots pay table may be mapped to interim patternsas previously discussed such that a first set of interim patterns maycorrespond to the award amounts that may be won by wagering on payline1, a second set of interim patterns may correspond to the award amountsthat maybe won by wagering on paylines 1 and 2, and so on. When wageringon an occurrence of the Bingo game, the player may wager one credit tobe eligible to receive awards for matching the interim patternsassociated the payline 1 award amounts, wager two credits to be eligibleto receive the awards for matching the interim patterns associated withthe payline 1 and 2 award amounts, and so on up to wagering nine creditsto be eligible to receive the awards for matching the interim patternsassociated with the payline 1 through 9 award amounts. Additionally, theplayer may be able to wager varying amounts per payline, which may,based on the interim pattern mapping, may also be deterministic of theset of interim patterns that the player may be eligible to match.Consequently, if the Bingo game is configured to allow the player towager from one to five credits per line, and the alternate outcomedisplay includes nine paylines, then the player may wager from onecredit (one payline and one credit per payline) to forty-five credits(nine paylines and five credits per payline) to be eligible to match oneof up to forty-five sets of interim patterns corresponding to interimpattern awards.

Those skilled in the art will understand that both the maximum number ofcredits that may be wagered on an occurrence of a Bingo game and thevalue of a credit may be varied as desired to implement a desiredbetting amount and payout for a given implementation of the Bingo game.In the above example, the value of a credit may be equal to $0.01resulting in a minimum wager of $0.01 and a maximum wager (45 credits)of $0.45 or, if a higher limit game is desired, the value of a creditmay be equal to $0.50 resulting in a minimum wager of $0.50 and amaximum wager of $22.50 for an occurrence of the Bingo game. Inalternative implementations of the Bingo game, the value of a credit maybe varied to any desired amount and the maximum number of credits thatmay be wagered may be varied to achieve any desired betting and payoutstructure.

The player may be provided with the opportunity to change the wager forthe occurrence of the Bingo game up until the time that the playerconfirms entry into the next occurrence of the Bingo game. After theplayer inputs the desired wager amount, the player may confirm entry inthe next occurrence of the Bingo game by pressing the “Play/Daub” button82 or otherwise confirming entry at block 1206. Once the player confirmsentry in the game, the player's wager on the next occurrence of theBingo game may not be altered by the player. After the “Play/Daub”button 82 is pressed, control may pass to block 1208 wherein the amountof credits wagered by the player may be deducted from the amount ofavailable credits for the player stored at memory 102 of the gaming unit20. The controller 100 may update the amount of available credits inmemory 102, and may cause the displays 68, 70 to update the display ofthe player's credits to reflect the updated amount of available credit.Additionally, the controller 100 may transmit a message reflecting theplayer's wager to network computer 22 or other host computer of theBingo gaming system 10 responsible for tracking wagering on the Bingogame and for maintaining any winner prize pool associated with the Bingogame.

As previously discussed, in the embodiment illustrated in the routine ofFIG. 47, the player may have an opportunity to win a progressive jackpotwhen the player wagers at least a minimum wager amount on an occurrenceof the Bingo game. The minimum wager amount may be any predeterminedamount of credits required to be wagered in order to qualify to win theprogressive jackpot, and may be the maximum bet allowed for the Bingogame at the gaming unit 20. Moreover, the Bingo game system 10 may beconfigured such that the minimum wager amount may be changed eitherautomatically or manually to any desired amount, and may be applieduniformly at all gaming units 20, or may be set to desired amounts atindividual gaming units 20 or groups of gaming units 20. At block 1210,if the player wagers less than the minimum wager amount for entry in theprogressive jackpot, control may pass to a block 1212 wherein the gameunit 20 may transmit an enrollment message to the host computer 22indicating that the player has not enrolled in the next occurrence ofthe Bingo game.

If the player wagers at least the minimum wager amount for entry in theprogressive jackpot, control may pass to a block 1214 wherein aprogressive jackpot wager or fee for the player may be deducted from theamount of available credits for the player stored at memory 102 of thegaming unit 20. The controller 100 may update the amount of availablecredits in memory 102, and may cause the displays 68, 70 to update thedisplay of the player's credits to reflect the updated amount ofavailable credit. Alternatively, the progressive jackpot wager or feemay be diverted from the credits deducted for the player's wager inorder to fund the progressive jackpot pool. Depending on theimplementation, the progressive jackpot wager or fee may be a fixedamount, or may be a predetermined portion or percentage of the player'swager on the occurrence of the Bingo game. Whether a fixed amount or aportion or percentage of the wager on the Bingo game, the wager or feefor the progressive jackpot may be any desired amount, and may be set atan amount to allow the progressive jackpot pool to increase at anacceptable rate while being low enough to motivate the players to makethe additional wager for the chance at winning a larger progressivejackpot.

In addition to deducting the progressive jackpot wager or fee from theplayer's credits, control may pass to a block 1216 wherein the gamingunit 20 transmits a message to the network computer 22, or othercomputer at which the progressive jackpot is maintained andadministered, to add the player's progressive jackpot wager or fee tothe progressive jackpot pool. Upon receiving the message from the gamingunit 20, the network computer 22 or other computer may add theprogressive jackpot wager or fee to the funds available for theprogressive jackpot and update any displays of the current progressivejackpot displayed at gaming units or other display devices. Control maythen pass to the block 1212 wherein the gaming unit 20 may transmit anenrollment message to the host computer 22 as discussed above. Once theplayer is enrolled, the execution of the occurrence of the Bingo gamemay proceed as implemented, such as by one of the routines 700, 750, 760or 770 as previously described.

In current implementations of progressive jackpots with wagering games,a portion of each player's wager may be used to fund the progressivejackpot even where the player does not qualify to win all or a portionof the progressive jackpot. Conversely, as illustrated in the presentembodiment of the routine 1200, a player's wager and/or availablecredits may only be used to fund the progressive jackpot where theplayer wagers a sufficient amount of credits to qualify for an entry towin the progressive jackpot.

FIG. 48 is a flowchart of an alternative player enrollment routine 1220for a multi-player Bingo game wherein the player may input a wager orfee for an opportunity to win a progressive jackpot at the time theplayer inputs a wager on the occurrence of the Bingo game. The playerenrollment routine 1220 may begin in a similar manner as routine 1200 atblock 1202 wherein the player deposits a medium of currency in acurrency-accepting mechanism at the gaming unit 20, and at block 1204wherein the player inputs a wager on an occurrence of the Bingo game. Inaddition to the wager on the Bingo game, the player may elect to havethe opportunity to win the progressive jackpot. At block 1222, if theplayer has elected to participate and have the opportunity to win theprogressive jackpot, control may pass to a block 1224 wherein the playermay input a wager or fee for the progressive jackpot. The gaming unit 20may provide a prompt at the displays 68, 70 to participate in theprogressive jackpot, and the control panel 66 may be configured to allowthe player to indicate an election to participate in the progressivejackpot, such as by entering a wager or fee amount. Alternatively, theplayer may be prompted to provide an affirmative response regardingprogressive jackpot participation or otherwise indicating the player'sdesire to participate in the progressive jackpot.

If the player does not elect to participate in the progressive jackpot,or after the player inputs a wager or fee or otherwise elects toparticipate, control may pass to block 1206 wherein the player may hitthe “Play/Daub” button 82, and to block 1208 wherein the player's wagermay be deducted from the player's available credits as previouslydiscussed. At a block 1226, if the player input a wager or fee for theprogressive jackpot or otherwise indicated the election to enter theprogressive jackpot, control may pass to block 1214 to deduct theprogressive jackpot wager or fee from the player's available credits,and to block 1216 wherein the gaming unit 20 transmits a message to thenetwork computer 22 or other computer administering the progressivejackpot to add the progressive jackpot wager or fee to the progressivejackpot pool as previously described. If the player does not elect toparticipate in the progressive jackpot, or after adjusting the player'savailable credit and the jackpot pool as described, control may pass toblock 1212 wherein the gaming unit 20 transmits the enrollment messageto the host computer 22 as discussed above. In either routine 1200 and1220, or any other optional enrollment routine, the gaming unit 20 maybe configured to display graphics relating to the progressive jackpot atthe displays 68, 70 when the player is eligible to win the progressivejackpot, and may not display progressive jackpot graphics when theplayer is not eligible to win the progressive jackpot.

While the routines 1200 and 1220 are described as being implemented witha multi-player Bingo game as the base wagering game, those skilled inthe art will understand that other base wagering games may incorporateprogressive jackpots wherein the progressive jackpot pools are fundedfrom the wagers or fees of the players who are eligible to win theprogressive jackpot. Moreover, the progressive jackpots having optionalwagering may be implemented at gaming networks connecting multiplecasino locations, including casinos located in different gamingjurisdictions. In multi-location gaming networks, progressive jackpotwagering may be offered at some but not all of the casino locations.Casino operator may elect not to offer progressive jackpot wagering, orprogressive jackpot wagering may be prohibited within particularjurisdictions. Moreover, progressive jackpot wagering may only beoffered for some gaming units within a particular casino location. Insuch instances, the gaming units may be configured to avoid displayingany information relating to progressive jackpot wagering, such assuppressing a progressive wagering prompt, and may not display graphicsrelated to progressive jackpots when the outcomes of the occurrences ofthe wagering game are displayed. In these implementations, the gamingunits, wagering game network computers and/or the progressive jackpotnetwork computer may be configurable to disable progressive jackpotwagering at particular gaming units, network computers, casino locationsor jurisdictions.

Generally, when offered in conjunction with a multi-player Bingo game,the progressive jackpot or a portion thereof may be awarded to a playermatching a predetermined pattern on the Bingo card during the occurrenceof the Bingo game. As previously discussed, the progressive jackpot maybe awarded any time a player matches the predetermined pattern orpatterns, or may be awarded when a player matches the pattern within apredetermined maximum number or after a predetermined minimum number ofnumbers are drawn. For example, the progressive jackpot may be awardedto a player matching the numbers in the four corners of the Bingo cardwith the first four drawn numbers for the occurrence of the Bingo game,while players matching the four corners after more than four drawn arenumbers drawn may not win the progressive jackpot, but may still beeligible to receive an award if the four corners pattern in thegame-winning pattern or an interim win pattern.

As previously discussed, the multi-player Bingo game may be implementedsuch that a player failing to daub to claim a game-winning pattern awardor an interim pattern award may forfeit the awards. For the game-winningpattern awards, the Bingo game may continue until one of the playersdaubs to claim the award as discussed above. For the slept interimpattern awards, the gaming units 20 may simply indicate that the awardshave been slept and not dispense the award to the player, add credit forthe player, or otherwise pay off the award. Alternatively, the sleptinterim pattern award amounts may be used as further funding for theprogressive jackpot. By adding the slept interim pattern awards to theprogressive jackpot instead of retaining the awards for the gamingestablishment, the multi-player Bingo game may be able to achieve theprojected payout rate for the Bingo game by ultimately paying out theinterim pattern win awards through the progressive jackpot, and theprogressive jackpot may accumulate at a faster rate, thereby potentiallyincreasing player participation with the anticipation of winning largerprogressive jackpot awards.

FIG. 49 is a flowchart of a Bingo game execution routine 1300 for thegaming units 20 wherein slept interim pattern win awards may be added tothe progressive jackpot pool such that the slept awards may ultimatelybe dispensed in progressive jackpot awards. In the illustratedembodiment, any progressive jackpot awards won by a player may becalculated and deducted from the progressive jackpot pool after theplayer daubs to claim the progressive jackpot award. The routine 1300may begin at a block 1302 wherein the gaming unit 20 may receive a batchof drawn numbers for an occurrence of the Bingo game. As discussedabove, depending on the implementation of the Bingo game, the batch mayinclude a single drawn number, all the numbers in the order drawn forthe occurrence of the Bingo game, or any desired subset of the numbers.After receiving the batch of numbers at the gaming unit 20, control maypass to a block 1304 wherein the gaming unit 20 evaluates the player'sBingo card by comparing the numbers in the received batch to the numberson the Bingo card, and determining whether any predeterminedgame-winning patterns, interim patterns or progressive jackpot patternsare matched on the Bingo card.

After the gaming unit 20 evaluates the Bingo card, control may pass to ablock 1306 wherein the gaming unit 20 may display the outcome of theball draw for the Bingo game at the display unit 68 as previouslydiscussed and illustrated, and to a block 1308 wherein a sleep timer maybe started to provide the player with a period of time in which to dauband claim any award for the occurrence of the Bingo game. At a block1310, if the player daubs before the sleep timer expires, control maypass to block 1312 to determine whether a player or players matching thegame-winning pattern have daubed to claim the game-winning pattern awardfor the occurrence of the Bingo game. If the player has not yet daubedtheir Bingo card, control may pass to a block 1314 to determine whetherthe sleep timer expired without the player daubing. If the sleep timerhas not expired, control may pass back to the block 1310 to continuewaiting for the player to daub. If the sleep timer has expired withoutthe player daubing, the gaming unit 20 may determine whether the playerslept any interim pattern awards or progressive jackpot awards.

If the gaming unit determines that the player matched and slept throughan interim pattern award at block 1316, control may pass to a block 1318wherein the gaming unit 20 may flag or otherwise indicate that theinterim pattern matched by the player has been slept and, consequently,may not be awarded to the player. The indicator may be in the form of aflag or code stored in the memory 102 of the gaming unit 20 that may beupdated to a value signifying that the player may not receive the awardamount associated with the interim pattern. The interim patterns flaggedas being slept by the player may vary based on the implementation of themulti-player Bingo game. In implementations where a player is paid anaward for each matched interim pattern, each of the patterns matchedwith the numbers drawn up to the current batch may be flagged as slept.However, the player may still receive interim pattern awards forpatterns matched when preceding batches of numbers were received andcorrespondingly daubed by the player. For example, a first interimpattern may be matched on the player's Bingo card after a first batch ofnumbers is received, and a second interim pattern may be matched after asecond batch of numbers is received. If the player daubed within thesleep time limit after the first batch was received, but failed to daubwithin the sleep time limit after the second batch was received, thesecond interim pattern award that went unclaimed due to the player'sfailure to daub may be flagged as having been slept, while thepreviously-claimed first interim pattern award may still be awarded tothe player. In implementations where a player is paid only the highestinterim pattern award matched on the Bingo card, the gaming unit 20 mayonly flag the highest value interim pattern as slept. As with the aboveexample, the player may still receive any previously-claimed interimpattern awards. Where the player matches lower value interim patternswithin the same batch of balls, the player may still be allowed to claimthe lower value interim pattern awards if a subsequent batch of numbersare received (i.e., no player has yet matched the game-winning patternand daub to claim the win) and the player daubs within the sleep timelimit. In either implementation, the player may still be eligible toclaim interim patterns newly matched when subsequent batches of numbersare received at the gaming unit 20.

In addition to flagging the interim pattern(s) as slept, at a block1320, the gaming unit 20 may transmit a message to the network computer22 or other network computer administering the progressive jackpot toadd the value of the slept interim pattern award amount(s) to theprogressive jackpot pool. Depending on the implementation of themulti-player Bingo game, the gaming unit 20 may transmit a separatemessage for each slept interim pattern with the corresponding awardamount, or may transmit a single message including the total of theaward amounts for the slept interim patterns. When the message isreceived at the network computer 22 or other computer, the award amountmay be added to the progressive jackpot pool and awarded to a subsequentwinner or winners of the progressive jackpot.

In addition to determining whether any interim patterns were slept and,if so, adding the corresponding award amounts to the progressive jackpotpool, at a block 1322, the gaming unit 20 may determine whether aprogressive jackpot pattern was matched and, consequently, slept by theplayer. If the player matched the progressive jackpot pattern and wouldhave won a progressive jackpot award, control may pass to a block 1324wherein the gaming unit 20 may flag or otherwise indicate that theprogressive jackpot pattern matched by the player has been slept and,consequently, the corresponding progressive jackpot prize may not beawarded to the player. The indicator may be in the form of a flag orcode stored in the memory 102 of the gaming unit 20 that may be updatedto a value signifying that the player may not receive the award amountassociated with the progressive jackpot. In the illustrated embodiment,the award associated with the progressive jackpot may not be calculateduntil the player daubs to claim the progressive jackpot award.Consequently, after determining whether the player slept a progressivejackpot award and, if so, indicating that the progressive jackpot maynot be awarded to the player for the present occurrence of the Bingogame, control may pass to the block 1312 to determine whether a playeror players matching the game-winning pattern have daubed to claim thegame-winning pattern award for the occurrence of the Bingo game.

If the player or players matching the game-winning pattern have slepttheir win, control may pass back to the block 1302 wherein the gamingunit 20 may receive an additional batch of drawn numbers and continuethe occurrence of the Bingo game. If one or more players daub to claimtheir Bingo win, control may pass to a block 1326 wherein the gamingunit 20 may determine whether to display and/or dispense any award wonby the player during the occurrence of the Bingo game. If the playerdoes not win any award for the occurrence of the Bingo game, control maypass to a block 1328 wherein the gaming unit 20 may display an end gamegraphic at the displays 68, 70. If the player has won a game-winning,interim pattern and/or a progressive jackpot award, control may pass toa block 1330 wherein the gaming unit 20 determines whether player shouldreceive credits for a Bingo game win award and/or an interim patternaward. If the player should receive credits for one or more of theseawards, control passes to a block 1332 wherein the gaming unit 20 mayincrease the player's available credits by adding the amount of creditscorresponding to the Bingo game win and/or the interim pattern awards.The gaming unit 20 may update the amount of available credit stored atthe memory 102, and redisplay the updated amount of available credit tothe player, such as at one or both of the displays 68, 70.

In addition to evaluating any Bingo game win and interim pattern awards,at a block 1334, the gaming unit 20 may determine whether the playershould receive a progressive jackpot award. If the player has won aprogressive jackpot award for the occurrence of the Bingo game, controlmay pass to a block 1336 wherein the gaming unit 20 and/or the networkcomputer administering the progressive jackpot may calculate aprogressive jackpot award amount for the player, and a block 1338wherein the award amount may be deducted from the progressive jackpotpool. Depending on the implementation of the Bingo game, the calculationof the progressive jackpot award may occur at either the gaming unit 20or the computer administering the progressive jackpot, or the processingof the progressive jackpot win may be divided between the twocomponents. For example, the gaming unit 20 may receive from theprogressive jackpot network computer and/or store the informationnecessary to calculate the progressive jackpot award. When the gamingunit determines that a player has won and daubed to claim theprogressive jackpot, the gaming unit 20 may use the information tocalculate the progressive jackpot award amount and transmit a message tothe progressive jackpot network computer with the information necessaryfor the progressive jackpot network computer to deduct the award amountfrom the progressive jackpot pool. Alternatively, the progressivejackpot network computer may calculate the award amount. The gaming unit20 may transmit a message containing information necessary for theadministrating computer to calculate the award amount, such as theamount wagered by the player, the pattern matched by the player, and thelike. Upon receiving the message, the progressive jackpot networkcomputer may calculate the award amount based on information in themessage and stored at the progressive jackpot network computer, deductthe award amount from the progressive jackpot pool, and transmit aresponse message to the gaming unit 20 containing the progressivejackpot award amount. Those skilled in the art will understand that thecalculation of the progressive jackpot award amount may be performed atany other desired component or components of the Bingo gaming system 10and in any desired manner based on the particular implementation of theBingo gaming system 10.

Once the progressive jackpot award amount is calculated and communicatedto the gaming unit 20, control may pass to a block 1340 wherein aprogressive jackpot win graphic may be displayed to the player at thegaming unit 20, such as at the displays 68, 70. The graphic may includethe progressive jackpot award amount and other displays to signify theawarding of a substantial jackpot award. The gaming unit 20 may also beprogrammed to activate other output devices to draw attention to theprogressive jackpot-winning gaming unit 20, such as generating music orsounds at the speakers 62, illuminating lights at the bezel 84, topper90 and candle 92, and the like. In addition to drawing attention to thegaming unit 20 through graphics, illuminations and sound, the gamingunit 20 may also transmit a message to inform the casino operators ofthe awarding of the progressive jackpot award.

During the course of an occurrence of the Bingo game, a player may matchmore than one interim pattern with patterns on the player's Bingo card.In one implementation where slept interim awards are forfeited, theplayer may be deemed to have daubed and claimed any interim patternsmatched by a batch of numbers when the player daubs within the timelimit, and to have slept any interim patterns matched by the batch ifplayer fails to daub. As previously discussed, the resultant interimpattern award for the player may be either the total of award amountscorresponding to the claimed interim patterns, or the highest awardamount corresponding to any claimed pattern. In instances where a playerhas slept an interim pattern award, in order to more closely achieve theprojected payout rate for the Bingo game, it may be desired to add theamount that a player lost by sleeping the interim pattern award to theprogressive jackpot pool. Consequently, in one embodiment, thedifference between the slept interim pattern award and the claimedinterim pattern award may be added to the progressive jackpot pool ifthe slept interim pattern award was greater than the claimed interimpattern award.

In one scenario, a player may match a first interim pattern when a firstbatch of numbers is received at the gaming unit and match a secondinterim pattern when a second batch of numbers is received. If theplayer successfully daubs within the sleep time period associated withthe first batch of numbers, the player may be guaranteed to receive atleast the award amount associated with the claimed first interimpattern. When the second batch of numbers is received, if the playerfails to daub within the sleep time period associated with the secondbatch, and consequently slept the second interim pattern, the player maystill be entitled to receive the first interim pattern award. At theconclusion of the occurrence of the Bingo game, the player may receive apayout for the first interim pattern award amount that was successfullyclaimed. If the award amount for the second interim pattern award wasgreater than the award amount for the first interim pattern award, theplayer's failure to claim the second interim pattern award resulted in anet loss of the difference between the award amounts. In this case, thegaming unit 20 may transmit a message to the progressive jackpot networkcomputer to add the difference between the award amounts to theprogressive jackpot pool. If the slept award amount is less than theclaimed award amount, the player is in no worse position than if theplayer had claimed the second interim pattern award and, consequently,no amount may be required to be added to the progressive jackpot pool tocompensate for the player's failure to claim the second interim patternaward.

In a further scenario, a player may match the first and the secondinterim patterns on the same batch of numbers. As in the above example,a player may receive the highest award amount where multiple interimpatterns are matched and claimed. Moreover, the player may only beconsidered to be eligible to claim the interim pattern having thehighest award amount when multiple interim patterns are matched on thesame batch of numbers. Still further, where a player matches multipleinterim patterns matched on a batch of balls and sleeps the interimpattern having the highest award amount, the player may be eligible toclaim the interim pattern having the next highest award amount when thenext batch of balls is received at the gaming unit 20.

Consequently, when the player matches the first and the second interimpatterns on the first batch of numbers, if the player fails to daubwithin the associated sleep time period, the player may have slept theinterim pattern having the greater award amount, but may not haveclaimed the other interim pattern. If the occurrence of the Bingo gameconcludes on that batch of numbers, the player may receive no interimpattern award, and the gaming unit 20 may transmit a message to theprogressive jackpot network computer to add the slept award amount tothe progressive jackpot pool. If a subsequent batch of numbers isreceived at the gaming unit 20, the player may claim the other matchedinterim pattern and corresponding lower award amount during theassociated sleep time period. At the conclusion of the occurrence of theBingo game, the gaming unit 20 may award the lower award amount to theplayer, and may transmit a message to the progressive jackpot networkcomputer to add the difference between the slept higher award amount andthe claimed lower award amount to the progressive jackpot pool. Inconfiguring the gaming units 20 to conduct the Bingo game in thismanner, it may be necessary to modify a routine, such as routine 1300,to transmit messages to the progressive jackpot network computer to addslept award amounts to the progressive jackpot pool until the conclusionof the occurrence of the Bingo game after a player has daubed to claim agame-winning pattern.

In the embodiment detailed above, the progressive jackpot award amountmay be calculated only after the player daubs to claim the progressivejackpot award. By waiting until the progressive jackpot is claimed, theprogressive jackpot pool may be updated only after confirming that theprogressive jackpot award will be played out to the player. In otherimplementations, it may be desired to calculate and display the actualprogressive jackpot award amount to the player after evaluating the cardand prior to the player daubing to provide the player with the awardthat the player stands to win, and to update the progressive jackpotpool to reflect the current progressive jackpot available for otherplayers. FIG. 50 illustrates an alternative embodiment of a flowchart ofa Bingo game execution routine 1350 for the gaming units 20 wherein theprogressive jackpot award amount is calculated prior to the playerdaubing to claim a progressive jackpot win whereby the progressivejackpot awards, in addition to slept interim pattern win awards, may beadded back to the progressive jackpot pool and made available to theplayers to be awarded in subsequent progressive jackpot awards.

The routine 1350 may follow the same general flow as the routine 1300illustrated in FIG. 49 and discussed above. In the routine 1350, afterthe gaming unit 20 evaluates the Bingo card at block 1304, and beforedisplaying the outcome at block 1306, control may pass a block 1352 todetermine whether the player has won a progressive jackpot. If theplayer did not win the progressive jackpot, control may pass to block1306 to display the outcome. If the player won the progressive jackpot,control may pass to block 1336 to calculate the progressive jackpotaward amount and to block 1338 to transmit the message to theadministering computer that the player has won the progressive jackpotin a similar manner as described above. At this time, the progressivejackpot award amount may be available to the player upon successfullydaubing within the sleep time period, while the progressive jackpot poolis reduced to reflect the jackpot amount available to other players. Ifthe player daubs within the sleep time period, the routine 1350 proceedsgenerally as described above, with the previously-calculated progressivejackpot award amount being displayed to the player at the gaming unit 20at block 1340. If the player fails to daub and claim the progressivejackpot award, after the gaming unit 20 determines that the player sleptthe progressive jackpot award, control may pass to a block 1354 whereinthe gaming unit 20 may transmit a message to the administering computerindicating that the player slept the progressive jackpot award and toadd the calculated progressive jackpot award amount back into theprogressive jackpot pool. Because the progressive jackpot award amountwas not actually paid out to the player, the award may still beavailable for other players to win. Upon receiving the message, theadministering computer may add the award amount to the progressivejackpot pool and redisplay the updated progressive jackpot amount.

In the simplest implementation of a progressive jackpot in connectionwith a Bingo game or other wagering game, a player may receive theentire progressive jackpot pool as an award, and the progressive jackpotpool may be reduced to zero or to a minimum seed amount sufficient toencourage players to wager on the progressive jackpot. However, as anincentive to players to increase the amount wagered on the underlyingwagering game, it may be desired to determine and pay out a proratedportion of the progressive jackpot pool based on the amount wagered bythe player on the occurrence of the Bingo game versus the maximum amountthat could have been wagered. Players may be encourage to wager more oneach occurrence of the wagering game if they stand to receive a largershare of the progressive jackpot pool. In one embodiment, the proratedaward amount may be calculated by determining the ratio of the player'swager to the maximum wager that may be made by a player, and multiplyingthe progressive jackpot pool amount by the ratio. For example, if theplayer wagers $1.00 on an occurrence of the wagering game, and themaximum amount that may be wagered is $2.00, the ratio of the playerwager to the maximum wager is 0.5, or 50%, and the player may beentitled 50% of the pool for winning the progressive jackpot. The actualcalculation may vary based on the underlying wagering game or games withwhich the progressive jackpot is associated.

In one type of implementation, the progressive jackpot may be offeredwith a single wagering game played on multiple machines each having thesame wagering structure. As one example, the progressive jackpot may beoffered in conjunction with a Bingo game as previously described havingan alternate outcome display of a slot machine with five reels eachhaving three visible reel symbols, and allowing a player to wager fromone to forty-five credits on each occurrence of the Bingo game. Eachcredit may be worth $0.01 so that each player may wager from a minimumof $0.01 to a maximum of $0.45 on each occurrence of the Bingo game. Forsuch a system, the prorated progressive jackpot award may be calculatedaccording to the following formula:

$\begin{matrix}{{Award}_{prorated} = {{Pool}_{prog} \times \frac{{wager}_{player}}{{wager}_{\max}}}} & (1)\end{matrix}$

Where: Award_(prorated)=prorated progressive jackpot award

Pool_(prog)=progressive jackpot pool amount

wager_(player)=player's wager on occurrence of the game

wager_(max)=maximum wager for wagering game

In the current example, wager_(max) is equal to the $0.45 maximum wagerfor an occurrence of the Bingo game on any of the gaming units 20.Applying the formula, if the progressive jackpot pool amount iscurrently $9,000,000, a player wagering one credit ($0.01) on anoccurrence of the Bingo game may receive a prorated award of 1/45 of theprogressive jackpot pool ($200,000), while a player wagering fifteencredits ($0.15) may receive a prorated award of ⅓ of the progressivejackpot pool ($3,000,000), and a player making a maximum bet may receivethe entire $9,000,000 progressive jackpot.

In other implementations, the progressive jackpot may be offered withwagering games having different wagering structures. In one example, theBingo gaming system 10 having gaming units 20 with $0.01 Bingo games asdescribed in the preceding example may further include gaming units 30with $1.00 Bingo games wherein a player may wager from one to fifteencredits, with each credit being worth $1.00 resulting in a wageringrange of from $1.00 to $15.00 on an occurrence of the Bingo game. Forsystems having wagering games with multiple wagering structures, theprorated progressive jackpot award may be calculated according to thefollowing formula:

$\begin{matrix}{{Award}_{prorated} = {{Pool}_{prog} \times \frac{{wager}_{player}}{{wager}_{{system}\mspace{14mu} \max}}}} & (2)\end{matrix}$

Where: Award_(prorated)=prorated progressive jackpot award

Pool_(prog)=progressive jackpot pool amount

wager_(player)=player's wager on occurrence of the game

wager_(system max)=maximum wager for available on the system

The wager_(system max) is equal to the largest wager that may be made ona wagering game associated with the progressive jackpot. In the presentexample, wager_(system max) may be a $15.00 wager on the $1.00 Bingogame. Consequently, for the same $9,000,000 progressive jackpot pool, aplayer wagering fifteen credits on an occurrence of the $0.01 Bingo game($0.15) may receive a prorated award of 1/100 (0.15/15) of theprogressive jackpot pool ($90,000), while a player wagering one crediton an occurrence of the $1.00 Bingo game ($1.00) may receive a proratedaward of 1/15 of the progressive jackpot pool ($600,000). Moreover, aplayer making a maximum bet on the $0.01 Bingo game ($0.45) may receive$270,000 as a prorated progressive jackpot award, while a player makinga maximum bet on the $1.00 Bingo game ($1.00) may receive the entire$9,000,000 progressive jackpot.

The prorated progressive jackpot award may be calculated in a systemhaving multiple wagering structures using the following alternativeformula:

$\begin{matrix}{{Award}_{prorated} = {{Pool}_{prog} \times \frac{{denom}_{game}}{{denom}_{{system}\mspace{14mu} \max}} \times \frac{{credits}_{player}}{{credits}_{{system}\mspace{14mu} \max}}}} & (3)\end{matrix}$

Where: Award_(prorated)=prorated progressive jackpot award

Pool_(prog)=progressive jackpot pool amount

denom_(game)=denomination of the wagering game

credits_(player)=credits wagered on occurrence of the game

denom_(system max)=maximum denomination available on the system

credits_(system max)=maximum credits to wager on the system

As distinct from Formula (2), Formula (3) addresses the maximumdenomination and the maximum credits to be wagered on the systemseparately in determining the prorated progressive jackpot award.Consequently in the above example, denom_(system max) may be equal tothe $1.00/credit denomination of the $1.00 Bingo game, andcredits_(system max) may be equal to the forty-five credits of the $0.01Bingo game. Applying Formula (3), the four players in the immediatelypreceding example may win prorated progressive jackpot awards of$30,000, $200,000, $90,000 and $3,000,000, respectively.

Those skilled in the art will understand that prorated progressivejackpot awards as discussed herein may be implemented with combinationsof wagering games having varying wagering structures with whichprogressive jackpots may be associated in addition to Bingo games asdescribed herein, such as mechanical and video slot machines, videopoker games, video blackjack games, video keno games, and in gamingnetworks having varying combinations of wagering games. Moreover, theprorated awards may be implemented with progressive jackpots associatedwith gaming networks wherein networked gaming machines may be disposedin multiple gaming locations, such as wide area progressive networks. Ina given implementation, an appropriate one of the formulas (1)-(3), orother formula relating the actual wagers of the players to the wageringstructures available in the gaming network, may be used to calculateprorated progressive jackpot awards in order to achieve desired payoutrates and award levels for the players wagering on the wagering gameswith which the progressive jackpot may be associated.

Progressive Jackpots with Main Pools and Reserve Pools

In many progressive jackpot implementations, a progressive jackpot poolmay be accumulated by adding a percentage or fixed amount of eachplayer's wager to the progressive jackpot pool, and may be paid outentirely or down to a predetermined minimum seed amount when a playerwins the progressive jackpot. These progressive jackpots may go from anextremely large progressive jackpot payout to a relatively meagerprogressive jackpot pool offering the players minimal incentive to playthe associated wagering games and wager sufficient amounts on theoccurrences of the wagering games to qualify to win the next progressivejackpot. Consequently, the progressive jackpot pool may increase at arelatively slow rate until reaching amounts sufficient to induce playersto play the wagering games.

In alternative implementations, a progressive jackpot pool may besubdivided into a main pool from which progressive jackpot awards may bepaid, and a reserve pool that may be used to replenish the main poolafter an award is paid out to a winning player. As the wagering gamesare played by the players, a percentage of each player's wager, or afixed amount of the wager or other fee as described above, may beseparated from the wager and added to the progressive jackpot pool. Incurrent implementations, the money diverted from the wagers may be addedentirely to either the main pool or the reserve pool, or may be splitbetween the pools in proportions that may be manually adjusted by asystem operator based on predetermined guidelines or other criteria toachieve a desired rate of increase of the main pool and the reservepool. When a player wins the progressive jackpot, the money in the mainpool may be paid out, and an amount equal to a minimum payout amountmaybe transferred from the reserve pool to the main pool in order to setthe progressive jackpot at a level that may motivate players to play thewagering games and to make wagers large enough to qualify for theprogressive jackpot.

It may be desirable to further enhance a gaming network implementing aprogressive jackpot having a main pool and a reserve pool such that whenmain pool contains a relatively low balance, such as when theprogressive jackpot is initially introduced, or after paying aprogressive jackpot award from the main pool, the gaming network may beconfigured to automatically replenish the main pool at a faster rate asthe players play the wagering game to a desired minimum payout rate thatmay induce additional play and increased wagering amounts on thewagering game. In one embodiment, the gaming network may be configuredto add a relatively large portion of money diverted from the player'swagers to the main pool when the main pool amount is relatively small,such as zero or a predetermined minimum seed amount, with the portion ofthe diverted money added to the main pool decreasing as the main poolamount increases. Correspondingly, the portion diverted to the reservepool may be relatively small when the main pool is small, and increaseas the main pool increases.

At the introduction of the progressive jackpot, the main pool may be setto a desired minimum seed amount (MSA) and the reserve pool may have theminimum seed amount MSA subtracted therefrom, resulting in a negativebalance equal to the minimum seed amount MSA. From the casino accountingperspective, prior to player wagering, the balance of the progressivejackpot pool is $0 and the casino or other progressive jackpot sponsormay not need to commit funds to the progressive jackpot at the outset.Due to the statistically low frequency with which progressive jackpotawards may be paid out, in most instances the funds diverted from theplayer's wagers and added to the progressive jackpot pool may fully fundthe progressive jackpot by the time a player wins the first progressivejackpot award. In the less common instances wherein a player wins theprogressive jackpot before the progressive jackpot pool is fully fundedby player contributions, the casino or other sponsor may have to providefunds to cover any short-term shortfall between the progressive jackpotaward amount and the net amount in progressive jackpot pool. Once theprogressive jackpot pool reaches a balance sufficient to cover the mainpool amount (i.e. the maximum winnable progressive jackpot at a givenpoint in time), and the minimum seed amount MSA and the funds advancedby the sponsor (i.e. the balance of the reserve pool is greater than theminimum seed amount MSA and the advanced funds), the sponsor may deductthe advanced funds from the reserve pool.

As previously discussed, as players play the wagering game(s) associatedwith the progressive jackpots, portions of the wagers are diverted tothe main and/or reserve pools to fund the progressive jackpot. FIG. 51is a flowchart of a progressive jackpot funding routine 1400 for addingmoney diverted from the player's wagers to the main pool and the reservepool of the progressive jackpot. The routine 1400 may begin at a block1402 wherein the network computer administering the progressive jackpotreceives a message from a gaming unit or other network computer with aprogressive jackpot contribution from one or more player wagers. Theprogressive jackpot contribution from a player's wager may be determinedin any manner as previously described or other manner known to thoseskilled in the art, and at the gaming unit where the wager is made or ata network computer administering the particular wagering game. Afterdetermining the progressive jackpot contribution, the gaming unit ornetwork computer may transmit a message to the progressive jackpotnetwork computer with information relating to the progressive jackpotcontributions from one or more individual player wagers.

After the progressive jackpot network computer receives the progressivejackpot contribution message, control may pass to a block 1404 whereinthe progressive jackpot network computer may determine the percentage Pof the contribution to add to the main pool of the progressive jackpot.The progressive jackpot may be programmed to calculate or otherwisedetermine the percentage P based on a predetermined formula, the amountsin the main pool and the reserve pool relative to predeterminedthreshold amounts, or other criteria established by the jackpot sponsorsuch that the main pool and the reserve pool increase at the desiredrates. Embodiments of methods for calculating or otherwise determiningthe percentage P are illustrated and discussed more fully below.

Once the percentage P is determined by the progressive jackpot networkcomputer at block 1404, control may pass to a block 1406 wherein theprogressive jackpot network computer may add P % of the progressivejackpot contribution to the main pool, and to a block 1408 wherein theprogressive jackpot network computer may add the remaining (100−P) % tothe reserve pool. After the main pool and the reserve pool are updatedwith the progressive jackpot contribution, the progressive jackpotnetwork computer may broadcast a message on the gaming networkcontaining the updated main pool amount at a block 1410. The messagewith the updated main pool amount may be received by the gaming unitsand network computers, and displayed on the appropriate display devicesas maximum winnable progressive amounts at a block 1412. The displayedmaximum winnable progressive amounts may vary based on the particularwagering game, and may also vary based on the gaming unit, with themaximum winnable progressive amount displayed being determined in amanner described more fully below.

As discussed above generally and with respect to block 1404 of routine1400, the progressive jackpot network computer may be programmed todetermine the percentage P of the progressive jackpot contributions forthe main pool in order to achieve a desired rate of growth for the mainpool or the reserve pool, perhaps based on the current balances of thepools. In some implementations, it may be desired to increase the mainpool from zero or from a minimum seed amount to a desired minimumjackpot amount relatively quickly, and increase the main pool moreslowly when the main pool exceeds the desired minimum jackpot amount.This strategy may be achieved by programming the progressive jackpotnetwork computer to apply a constant, relatively high percentage P tothe progressive jackpot contribution when the amount in the main pool isless than the desired minimum jackpot amount, and to apply a constant,relatively low percentage P when the amount in the main pool exceeds thedesired minimum jackpot amount.

The graph of FIG. 52 illustrates an example of an implementation of thisstrategy. In this example, the minimum seed amount MSA for the main poolmay be set at $200,000 and the desired minimum jackpot amount DMJA maybe set at $1,000,000. When the main pool amount is less than the desiredminimum jackpot amount DMJA, the sponsor may desire to add 90% of theprogressive jackpot contributions to the main pool until the main poolequals the desired minimum jackpot amount DMJA, and then 10% thereafter,as indicated by line 1420. Correspondingly, as shown by line 1422, theremainders of the contributions are added to the reserve pool, i.e., 10%of the contributions are directed to the reserve pool when the main poolis less than the desired minimum jackpot amount DMJA, and 90%thereafter.

FIG. 53 illustrates an alternative strategy that may be programmed atthe progressive jackpot network computer wherein the percentage P of thecontributions added to the main pool may decrease linearly as the mainpool amount increases from the minimum seed amount MSA to the desiredminimum jackpot amount DMJA, and maintain a constant rate thereafter.The percentage P of the contribution added to the main pool for a givenmain pool amount between the minimum seed amount MSA and desired minimumjackpot amount DMJA may be calculated using the following formula:

$\begin{matrix}{P_{main} = {P_{{main}\mspace{14mu} \max} - {\left( {P_{{main}\mspace{14mu} \max} - P_{{main}\mspace{14mu} \min}} \right)\left( \frac{{pool}_{main} - {MSA}}{{DMJA} - {MSA}} \right)}}} & (4)\end{matrix}$

Where: P_(main)=percentage contributed to main pool

P_(main max)=maximum percentage contributed to main pool

P_(main min)=minimum percentage contributed to main pool

pool_(main)=main pool amount

MSA=minimum seed amount

DMJA=desired minimum jackpot amount

Within the same range, the percentage of the contribution added to thereserve pool may be calculated using the following formula:

P _(reserve)=100−P _(main)  (5)

Where: P_(reserve)=percentage contributed to reserve poolIn the example of FIG. 53, P_(main max)=80%, P_(main min)=20%,MSA=$200,000 and DMJA=$1,000,000. Substituting the values into formula(4) yields:

$\begin{matrix}{P_{main} = {{{80\%} - {\left( {{80\%} - {20\%}} \right)\left( \frac{{pool}_{main} - {{\$ 200},000}}{{{\$ 1},000,000} - {{\$ 200},000}} \right)}} = {{80\%} - {60\% \left( \frac{{pool}_{main} - {{\$ 200},000}}{{\$ 800},000} \right)}}}} & (6)\end{matrix}$

When the main pool is greater than the desired minimum jackpot amountDMJA, the contribution to the main pool may be a constant 20%.

FIGS. 54-56 are graphs illustrating further alternative strategies forfunding the main pool and the reserve pool that may be programmed at theprogressive jackpot network computer. Referring to FIG. 54, thepercentage contributed to the main pool may decrease in a stepwisefashion such that the percentage decreases incrementally as the mainpool amount increases from the minimum seed amount MSA. In FIGS. 55 and56, the progressive jackpot network computer may be programmed with morecomplex functions for determining the percentage contributed to the mainpool. In FIG. 55, the portion of line 1420 between the minimum seedamount MSA and the desired minimum jackpot amount DMJA may be parabolicsuch the percentage contributed to the main pool decreases slowly whenthe main pool amount is close to the minimum seed amount MSA, anddecreases much more rapidly as the main pool amount approaches thedesired minimum jackpot amount DMJA. The line 1420 in FIG. 56 may alsobe parabolic, but with the percentage contributed to the main pooldecreasing rapidly when the main pool amount is close to the minimumseed amount MSA, and leveling off and decreasing more slowly as the mainpool amount approaches the desired minimum jackpot amount DMJA. FIG. 56further illustrates that line 1420 may maintain continuity beyond thedesired minimum jackpot amount DMJA such that a single function maydefine the percentage contributed to the main pool for any given mainpool amount. Moreover, where different portions of line 1420 are definedby different functions, each of the functions may define a constantpercentage, a linearly varying percentage, or any other more complexfunction in order to achieve the desire rate of increase of the mainpool and the reserve pool. Those skilled in the art will furtherunderstand that the percentage contributions for the pools may bedefined in terms of the reserve pool amount, or in terms of both themain pool amount and the reserve pool amount.

In routine 1400, the maximum winnable progressive jackpot amount may bedisplayed to the players at block 1412. The maximum winnable progressivejackpot amount may be displayed at the individual gaming units of thegaming network and/or at separate display devices located at centrallocations within the casino, such as near banks of gaming unitsassociated with the progressive jackpot. In the simplest and most commonform, the maximum winnable progressive jackpot displayed to the playersmay be the current amount in the main pool. However, as discussed above,progressive jackpots may be implemented wherein the maximum progressivejackpot award for which a player may be eligible may vary based on thewagering structure of the wagering game and the amount wagered by theplayer on an occurrence of a wagering game. In order to manage playerexpectations regarding the size of a progressive jackpot for which theplayer qualifies, it may be desired by the casino or other sponsor todisplay to the player or group of players the actual amount they mayreceive for winning the progressive jackpot.

The maximum winnable progressive jackpot amount may be calculated in asimilar manner as previously described in connection with block 1336 ofFIGS. 49 and 50 for determining the player's actual progressive jackpotaward amount by prorating the total progressive jackpot amount.Consequently, in implementations where the progressive jackpot may beoffered with a single wagering game played on multiple machines eachhaving the same wagering structure, the maximum winnable progressivejackpot amount for a player may be calculated using a formula similar toformula (1) wherein Pool_(prog) is equal to the current amount in themain pool. Similarly, in implementations where the progressive jackpotmay be offered with wagering games having different wagering structures,the maximum winnable progressive jackpot amount for a player may becalculated using a formula similar to formulas (2) or (3).

The calculation of the maximum winnable progressive jackpot may beperformed at any appropriate or desired component or combination ofcomponents within the gaming network. For example, each gaming unit maystore information relating to the maximum wager for the wagering game,the maximum wager for the system, or the corresponding denominations andcredits making up the maximum wagers. When the progressive jackpotnetwork computer transmits the message containing the updated main poolamount, the gaming units may, upon receiving the message, calculate themaximum winnable progressive jackpot for the gaming unit by multiplyingthe main pool amount by the ratio of the maximum wager for the wageringgame to the maximum wager for the system, and display the maximumwinnable progressive jackpot on an appropriate display. The gaming unitsmay further update the maximum winnable progressive jackpot for theoccurrence of the wagering game for the player by multiplying thecurrent maximum winnable progressive jackpot for the gaming unit by theratio of the player's wager to the maximum wager for the wagering game,with the updated maximum winnable progressive jackpot being displayed asthe player plays the wagering game.

In other implementations, the calculation of the maximum winnableprogressive jackpot may occur in stages at the network computers activeas game servers for the wagering games, and at the associated gamingunits. For example, a network computer for a wagering game may receivethe updated main pool amount and calculate the maximum winnableprogressive jackpot for the wagering game in a similar manner asdiscussed above. The network computer may then display the maximumwinnable progressive jackpot for the wagering game at a central displayor displays, and transmit a message containing the maximum winnableprogressive jackpot for the wagering game to the associated gamingunits. Upon receiving the message, the gaming units may display themaximum winnable progressive jackpot for the wagering game, andcalculate and display the maximum winnable progressive jackpot for theoccurrence of the wagering game when the player makes a wager. While thecalculation and display of maximum winnable progressive jackpots arediscussed herein with progressive jackpots having a main pool and areserve pool, those skill in the art will understand that maximumwinnable progressive jackpots may be calculated and displayed inconjunction with other configurations of progressive jackpots

In progressive jackpots using a single pool, awards are paid out of theprogressive jackpot pool and the contributions from the player's wagersare added into the single progressive jackpot pool in their entirety. Ina progressive jackpot having a main pool and a reserve pool as describedabove, money may be transferred from the reserve pool to the main poolafter a progressive jackpot award is paid out of the main pool in orderto reseed the main pool and, consequently, the potential progressivejackpot award to relatively higher initial amounts, and in manyinstances without the need for initial funding by the jackpot's sponsor.As discussed above, the main pool and the reserve pool may be increasedsimultaneously so that reserve pool may grow to a substantial amount,and may even exceed the main pool. After an award is paid out of themain pool, it may be desired to reseed the main pool to at least aminimum seed amount, and to a greater amount to the extent additionalmoney is available in the reserve pool. However, it may further bedesired to limit the amount to which the main pool is reseeded to theamount in the main pool prior to awarding the progressive jackpot sothat the winning player may not have the sense of being cheated if theprogressive jackpot is immediately reset to a higher amount. Moreover,in implementations wherein a player may be paid a maximum winnableprogressive jackpot based on the ratio of the player's wager to a systemmaximum wager, it may be desired to determine a reseeding amount basedat least partially on the ratio used in determining the progressivejackpot award.

FIG. 57 is a flowchart of an embodiment of a progressive jackpotreseeding routine 1500 for reseeding a main pool of the progressivejackpot by transferring money from a reserve pool to the main pool. Theroutine may be performed in whole or in part at the progressive jackpotnetwork computer, or may be distributed among the other components ofthe gaming network as desired. Moreover, the routine may be implementedregardless of whether progressive jackpot awards are paid out in theirentirety each time, or are prorated based on the player's wager on theoccurrence of the wagering game. In implementations where a player isaward a prorated amount of the progressive jackpot, the routine 1500 maybegin at a block 1502 wherein the proration ratio (R) used to calculatethe progressive jackpot award may be stored for use in determining thetransfer amount (TA) to move from the reserve pool to the main pool. Theratio R may be, for example, the number from formulas (1)-(3) by whichthe progressive jackpot pool amount is multiplied to determine theprorated progressive jackpot award for the player. The ratio R may betransmitted to the progressive jackpot network computer by the gamingunit or network computer determining the prorated progressive jackpotaward, or may be calculated at the progressive jackpot network computer,and subsequently stored in an appropriate location in the memory of theprogressive jackpot network computer.

After the ratio R is stored, if necessary, control may pass to block1504 wherein the progressive jackpot network computer may store theprogressive award amount (PAA) at the progressive jackpot networkcomputer. The progressive award amount PAA may be used to ensure thatthe transfer amount TA does exceed the previously awarded progressivejackpot such that the new maximum winnable progressive jackpot exceedsthe amount available to the player that just won the progressivejackpot. For example, if a player receives a progressive jackpot awardof $400,000 out of a $500,000 main pool, the player may be disappointedto see the progressive jackpot reset to $1,000,000 if sufficient fundsexist in the reserve pool.

At a block 1506, the progressive jackpot network computer may calculatea preliminary transfer amount TA by multiplying the reserve pool amount(RPA) by the ratio R. The preliminary transfer amount TA resulting fromthe calculation may represent the maximum funds, or the prorated amountof the maximum funds, available for transfer from the reserve pool tothe main pool. If the preliminary transfer amount TA is negative at ablock 1508, control may pass to a block 1510 wherein the preliminarytransfer amount TA may be reset to $0 to prevent the main pool frombeing reduced further after the progressive jackpot award is paid out.

After determining whether the preliminary transfer amount TA is negativeand, if so, resetting the value to $0, control may pass to a block 1512wherein the progressive jackpot network computer may compare the mainpool amount (MPA) to the minimum seed amount (MSA). If the main poolamount MPA still exceeds the minimum seed amount MSA after theprogressive jackpot award is paid out, the routine 1500 may proceed todetermine the final transfer amount TA. If the main pool amount MPA isless than the minimum seed amount MSA, control may pass to a block 1514to calculate the minimum transfer amount (MTA) necessary to raise themain pool to the minimum seed amount MSA by subtracting the main poolamount MPA from the minimum seed amount MSA. If the current value of thetransfer amount is less than the minimum transfer amount MTA at a block1516, control may pass to a block 1518 wherein the transfer amount TAmay be reset to the minimum transfer amount MTA to ensure that the mainpool may be reseeded to at least the minimum seed amount MSA. It shouldbe noted that, if necessary, the transfer amount TA may be set to anamount that may result in a negative balance in the reserve pool afterthe transfer amount TA is transferred to the main pool.

After comparing the main pool amount MPA to the minimum seed amount MSAand, if necessary resetting the transfer amount TA to the minimumtransfer amount MTA, control may pass to a block 1520 wherein thecurrent value of the transfer amount TA may be compared to theprogressive award amount PAA previously stored at the progressivejackpot network computer at block 1502. If the transfer amount TA isless than the progressive award amount PAA, the routine 1500 may proceedto transfer the transfer amount TA from the reserve pool to the mainpool. If the transfer amount TA is greater than the progressive awardamount PAA, control may pass to a block 1522 to set the transfer amountTA to the progressive award amount PAA, thereby ensuring that the newbalance in the main pool may not exceed the previous balance. Once thevalue of the transfer amount TA is determined, control may pass to ablock 1524 to subtract the transfer amount TA from the reserve poolamount RPA, and to a block 1526 to add the transfer amount TA to themain pool amount MPA. Once the transfer from the reserve pool to themain pool is complete, control may pass to a block 1528 wherein theprogressive jackpot network computer may transmit the updated main poolamount MPA to the gaming units and network computers on the gamingnetwork for display to the players.

The following examples illustrate the reseeding of the main pool usingthe process of routine 1500 of FIG. 57. In each example, the minimumseed amount MSA for the main pool is $200,000. The first example isshown in Table 5 as follows:

TABLE 5 PAA MPA RPA Initial Balances $0 $200,000 −$200,000 Award Jackpot$100,000 $100,000 −$200,000 Reseed Main Pool $100,000 $200,000 −$300,000

The initial balances may reflect the balances of the progressive jackpotwhen the progressive jackpot is initially offered, with the main poolamount MPA being equal to the minimum seed amount MSA and the reservepool amount RPA being equal to the negative minimum seed amount MSA. Inthis example, the first player to place a wager on an associatedwagering game may place a wager equal to 50% of the system maximum wageron the occurrence of the wagering game, and may hit a progressivejackpot-winning combination. Based on the player's wager, the player mayreceive a prorated progressive jackpot award equal to the main poolamount MPA multiplied by the proration rate P of 50% for a progressiveaward amount PAA of $100,000, with the main pool amount MPA beingreduced by the progressive award amount PAA to $100,000.

The preliminary transfer amount TA may be calculated as —$100,000(RPA*R) at block 1506 and, since the preliminary transfer amount TA isless than $0, be reset to $0 at block 1510. Because the main pool amountMPA is less than the minimum seed amount MSA, the progressive jackpotnetwork computer may calculate a minimum transfer amount MTA of $100,000at block 1514 to raise the main pool amount MPA to the minimum seedamount MSA of $200,000. The transfer amount TA, previously set to $0, isless than the minimum transfer amount MSA. Consequently, at block 1518,the transfer amount TA may be set equal to the minimum transfer amountMTA of $100,000, which is also equal to the progressive award amountPAA. As a result, $100,000, equal to the transfer amount TA and theprogressive award amount PAA, may be subtracted from the reserve poolamount RPA at block 1524 and added to the main pool amount MPA at block1526, thereby yielding the post-reseeding balances shown in Table 5.

A second example of the execution of the routine 1500 is shown in Table6 as follows:

TABLE 6 PAA MPA RPA Initial Balances $0 $1,000,000 $2,000,000 AwardJackpot $750,000 $250,000 $2,000,000 Reseed Main Pool $750,000$1,000,000 $1,250,000

In this example, the player may have won the progressive jackpot with awager of 75% of the system maximum wager, resulting in a progressiveaward amount PAA of $750,000. Based on the proration rate R of 75%, thepreliminary transfer amount TA calculated at block 1506 (RPA*R) may be$1,500,000. The main pool amount MPA exceeds the minimum seed amountMSA, so it may not be necessary for the progressive jackpot networkcomputer to determine a minimum transfer amount MTA. However, thepreliminary transfer amount TA is greater than the progressive awardamount PAA. As a result, the transfer amount TA may be set to theprogressive award amount PAA at block 1522, resulting in the main poolamount MPA being set to back to the pre-jackpot award balance of$1,000,000 at block 1526 and the reserve pool amount RPA being reducedaccordingly.

A further example of the execution of routine 1500 is shown in Table 7as follows:

TABLE 7 PAA MPA RPA Initial Balances $0 $500,000 $250,000 Award Jackpot$400,000 $100,000 $250,000 Reseed Main Pool $400,000 $300,000 $50,000

In this example, the player may have won the progressive jackpot with awager of 80% of the system maximum wager, resulting in a progressiveaward amount PAA of $400,000. Based on the proration rate R of 80%, thepreliminary transfer amount TA calculated at block 1506 (RPA*R) may be$200,000. As in the first example, the main pool amount MPA is less thanthe minimum seed amount MSA, and the progressive jackpot networkcomputer may calculate the necessary minimum transfer amount MTA of$100,000 at block 1514. In the present example, however, the preliminarytransfer amount TA is greater than the minimum transfer amount MTA, andmay result in a main pool amount MPA that exceeds the minimum seedamount MSA. Moreover, the preliminary transfer amount TA is less thanthe progressive award amount PAA so that the reseeded balance of themain pool amount MPA may be less than the pre-jackpot award balance. Asa result, the calculated preliminary transfer amount TA may be added tothe main pool amount MPA at block 1526 and subtracted from the reservepool amount RPA at block 1524, resulting in the balances shown in Table7.

The invention is claimed as follows:
 1. A gaming system comprising: afirst gaming device including: a first gaming device housing; at leastone first gaming device display device supported by the first gamingdevice housing; a plurality of first gaming device input devicessupported by the first gaming device housing, said plurality of firstgaming device input devices including a first gaming device acceptor,and a first gaming device cashout device; at least one first gamingdevice processor; and at least one first gaming device memory devicewhich stores a plurality of first gaming device instructions which whenexecuted by the at least one first gaming device processor, cause the atleast one first gaming device processor to operate with the at least onefirst gaming device display device and the plurality of first gamingdevice input devices to: (a) if a first physical item is received viathe first gaming device acceptor, establish a first gaming device creditbalance based, at least in part, on a first monetary value associatedwith the received first physical item, (b) receive one of a firstplurality of wager amounts on a play of a first game, said firstplurality of wager amounts including a first gaming device maximum wageramount, and (c) if a cashout input is received via the first gamingdevice cashout device, cause an initiation of any payout associated withthe first gaming device credit balance, a second, different gamingdevice including: a second gaming device housing; at least one secondgaming device display device supported by the second gaming devicehousing; a plurality of second gaming device input devices supported bythe second gaming device housing, said plurality of second gaming deviceinput devices including a second gaming device acceptor, and a secondgaming device cashout device; at least one second gaming deviceprocessor; and at least one second gaming device memory device whichstores a plurality of second gaming device instructions which whenexecuted by the at least one second gaming device processor, cause theat least one second gaming device processor to operate with the at leastone second gaming device display device and the plurality of secondgaming device input devices to: (a) if a second physical item isreceived via the second gaming device acceptor, establish a secondgaming device credit balance based, at least in part, on a secondmonetary value associated with the received second physical item, (b)receive one of a second plurality of wager amounts on a play of a secondgame, said second plurality of wager amounts including a second gamingdevice maximum wager amount which is different from the first gamingdevice maximum wager amount, and (c) if a cashout input is received viathe second gaming device cashout device, cause an initiation of anypayout associated with the second gaming device credit balance, and atleast one controller configured to operate with said first gaming deviceand said second gaming device to: (a) if a first game outcome associatedwith the first gaming device is a predetermined progressive awardwinning outcome: (i) determine a first gaming device progressive awardamount based on an amount of a progressive pool and a ratio of thereceived wager amount on the play of the first game to a gaming systemmaximum wager amount selected between the first gaming device maximumwager amount and the second gaming device maximum wager amount, and (ii)display the determined first gaming device progressive award amount, and(b) if a second game outcome associated with the second gaming device isthe predetermined progressive award winning outcome: (i) determine asecond gaming device progressive award amount based on the amount of theprogressive pool and a ratio of the received wager amount on the play ofthe second game to the gaming system maximum wager amount, and (ii)display the determined second gaming device progressive award amount. 2.The gaming system of claim 1, wherein the first game outcome includes adetermined first outcome for the play of the first game being thepredetermined progressive award winning outcome.
 3. The gaming system ofclaim 2, wherein the second game outcome includes a determined secondoutcome for the play of the second game being the predeterminedprogressive award winning outcome.
 4. The gaming system of claim 1,wherein the first game outcome includes a determined first secondarygame outcome for a play of a first secondary game being thepredetermined progressive award winning outcome.
 5. The gaming system ofclaim 4, wherein the second game outcome includes a determined secondsecondary game outcome for the play of a second secondary game being thepredetermined progressive award winning outcome.
 6. The gaming system ofclaim 1, wherein the controller is configured to allocate a firstportion of at least one of the received wager amounts to the progressivepool and allocate a second portion of the at least one of the receivedwager amounts to a reserve pool.
 7. A gaming system server comprising:at least one processor; and at least one memory device which stores aplurality of instructions which when executed by the at least oneprocessor, cause the at least one processor to: (a) receive dataassociated with one of a first plurality of wager amounts placed on aplay of a first game at a first gaming device, said first plurality ofwager amounts including a first gaming device maximum wager amount,wherein a first credit balance is decreased based on the wager amountplaced on the play of the first game, said first credit balance beingincreasable via an acceptor of a physical item associated with amonetary value, and said first credit balance being decreasable via acashout device configured to receive an input to cause an initiation ofany payout associated with the first credit balance, (b) receive dataassociated with one of a second plurality of wager amounts placed on aplay of a second game at a second gaming device, said second pluralityof wager amounts including a second gaming device maximum wager amountwhich is different from the first gaming device maximum wager amount,wherein a second credit balance is decreased based on the wager amountplaced on the play of the second game, said second credit balance beingincreasable via an acceptor of a physical item associated with amonetary value, and said second credit balance being decreasable via acashout device configured to receive an input to cause an initiation ofany payout associated with the second credit balance, (c) if a firstgame outcome associated with the first gaming device is a predeterminedprogressive award winning outcome: (i) determine a first gaming deviceprogressive award amount based on an amount of a progressive pool and aratio of the received wager amount on the play of the first game to agaming system maximum wager amount selected between the first gamingdevice maximum wager amount and the second gaming device maximum wageramount, and (ii) cause at least one display device of the first gamingdevice to display the determined first gaming device progressive awardamount, and (d) if a second game outcome associated with the secondgaming device is the predetermined progressive award winning outcome:(i) determine a second gaming device progressive award amount based onthe amount of the progressive pool and a ratio of the received wageramount on the play of the second game to the gaming system maximum wageramount, and (ii) cause at least one display device of the second gamingdevice to display the determined second gaming device progressive awardamount.
 8. The gaming system server of claim 7, wherein the first gameoutcome includes a determined first outcome for the play of the firstgame being the predetermined progressive award winning outcome.
 9. Thegaming system server of claim 8, wherein the second game outcomeincludes a determined second outcome for the play of the second gamebeing the predetermined progressive award winning outcome.
 10. Thegaming system server of claim 7, wherein the first game outcome includesa determined first secondary game outcome for a play of a firstsecondary game being the predetermined progressive award winningoutcome.
 11. The gaming system server of claim 10, wherein the secondgame outcome includes a determined second secondary game outcome for theplay of a second secondary game being the predetermined progressiveaward winning outcome.
 12. The gaming system server of claim 7, whereinwhen executed by the at least one processor, the plurality ofinstructions cause the at least one processor to allocate a firstportion of at least one of the received wager amounts to the progressivepool and allocate a second portion of the at least one of the receivedwager amounts to a reserve pool.
 13. A method of operating a gamingsystem, said method comprising: (a) receiving data associated with oneof a first plurality of wager amounts placed on a play of a first gameat a first gaming device, said first plurality of wager amountsincluding a first gaming device maximum wager amount, wherein a firstcredit balance is decreased based on the wager amount placed on the playof the first game, said first credit balance being increasable via anacceptor of a physical item associated with a monetary value, and saidfirst credit balance being decreasable via a cashout device configuredto receive an input to cause an initiation of any payout associated withthe first credit balance, (b) receiving data associated with one of asecond plurality of wager amounts placed on a play of a second game at asecond gaming device, said second plurality of wager amounts including asecond gaming device maximum wager amount which is different from thefirst gaming device maximum wager amount, wherein a second creditbalance is decreased based on the wager amount placed on the play of thesecond game, said second credit balance being increasable via anacceptor of a physical item associated with a monetary value, and saidsecond credit balance being decreasable via a cashout device configuredto receive an input to cause an initiation of any payout associated withthe second credit balance, (c) if a first game outcome associated withthe first gaming device is a predetermined progressive award winningoutcome: (i) causing at least one processor to determine a first gamingdevice progressive award amount based on an amount of a progressive pooland a ratio of the received wager amount on the play of the first gameto a gaming system maximum wager amount selected between the firstgaming device maximum wager amount and the second gaming device maximumwager amount, and (ii) causing at least one display device of the firstgaming device to display the determined first gaming device progressiveaward amount, and (d) if a second game outcome associated with thesecond gaming device is the predetermined progressive award winningoutcome: (i) causing the at least one processor to determine a secondgaming device progressive award amount based on the amount of theprogressive pool and a ratio of the received wager amount on the play ofthe second game to the gaming system maximum wager amount, and (ii)causing at least one display device of the second gaming device todisplay the determined second gaming device progressive award amount.14. The method of claim 13, wherein the first game outcome includes adetermined first outcome for the play of the first game being thepredetermined progressive award winning outcome.
 15. The method of claim14, wherein the second game outcome includes a determined second outcomefor the play of the second game being the predetermined progressiveaward winning outcome.
 16. The method of claim 13, wherein the firstgame outcome includes a determined first secondary game outcome for aplay of a first secondary game being the predetermined progressive awardwinning outcome.
 17. The method of claim 16, wherein the second gameoutcome includes a determined second secondary game outcome for the playof a second secondary game being the predetermined progressive awardwinning outcome.
 18. The method of claim 13, which includes causing theat least one processor to allocate a first portion of at least one ofthe received wager amounts to the progressive pool and allocate a secondportion of the at least one of the received wager amounts to a reservepool.
 19. The method of claim 13 which is provided through a datanetwork.
 20. The method of claim 19, wherein the data network is aninternet.